What Is a First Look Listing? Seattle Buyers & Sellers Explained

Christian: [0:00] A house shows up in your search, but it isn't officially an active listing yet. It's labeled something called First Look. What does that mean? Can you tour it? Can you buy it? And if you're selling, is this a smart way to launch your home or just another step?

Joanna: [0:13] And here's the question I'd want answered as a buyer. Am I actually seeing the homes I should be seeing?

Christian: [0:20] Today we're talking about First Look, a new listing option in our market. I have already used this with one of my listings. In fact, I was one of the very first listing agents in the Seattle area to do it, which is not planned. It just happened that way. We're going to talk about what this does, what it doesn't do, and when it might actually make sense for you to do that. Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of the Awesome In Seattle podcast. This is your host, Christian Nossum with the Awesome Nossum Group at Wilson Realty Exchange, Inc. And I'm here with my amazing, awesome co-host, Miss Joanna Beecher.

Joanna: [0:54] Oh my gosh. Hi. Well, you want to start with the basics because First Look sounds a little like you need a special invitation.

Christian: [1:02] Yeah, you don't need a special invitation. First Look is just a brand new optional listing status that the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, or NWMLS, as we will refer to it for the rest of the time, they introduced this on September 4th, 2026, so right before Labor Day weekend. It lets a seller start marketing a home through the Northwest MLS before it's technically active. Think of this as like a pre-launch window, but not a secret listing. In other parts of the country, Basically the rest of the country. They call this a coming soon listing. But since we're so special being up here in the top left, we make up our own things. We call it First Look.

Joanna: [1:42] I don't know why. Because we're cool. Well, every NWMLS broker has access to these listings, not just the listing agent's office or one company's private network. Not to name names.

Christian: [1:57] Exactly. That first look window, it can last three weeks. So up to 21 days, the seller can choose whether to allow showings, whether to distribute the listing broadly on public real estate websites or through something called IDX. IDX is basically like the database that delivers listings out to all the other websites online.

Joanna: [2:19] Oh, cool.

Christian: [2:19] Yeah.

Joanna: [2:20] So when you see First Look, don't assume every property works the same way. Ask what that particular seller has chosen. So Christian, as you just said, you were one of the very first agents to try the First Look, right? What made you choose First Look instead of going straight to Active?

Christian: [2:38] This is kind of a funny story. So this was a slight accident that we did First Look, to be honest with you. At least the timing of it. A happy accident. So this listing was a 1950s mid -century modern home, pretty unique because it was designed by a famous local Northwest architect, Paul Hayden Kirk. And there are certain people that he has like a cult following. He only built or designed around 500 homes total in the Northwest, mostly Seattle and Eastside, Bellevue. There's not all 500 left. It's getting smaller and smaller, the number. This house was a complete gut remodel, but they actually tried to keep a lot of what he did intact while also putting a little modern lifestyle twist to the house. So it's not... Perfect in terms of maybe a purist of Paul Hayden Kirk, but it was a little different. Why this was unique is because with this being such a famous architect, a lot of times famous architects, their homes will sell for a little bit more than a comparable home that wasn't designed by them in the same neighborhood. Two homes, exactly the same square footage, same beds, baths, same lot. One designed by a famous person, one not. The one designed by a famous person historically sells for anywhere from 5% to 40% more. So it can be a pretty big swing.

Joanna: [4:12] Yeah.

Christian: [4:12] We actually used the First Look opportunity as a way to kind of gauge price before we actually went active.

Joanna: [4:20] Okay. And did you allow showings and broad website distribution?

Christian: [4:25] We did. Again, we wanted to build up a lot of anticipation and test the market. And that's kind of what we got to do. The funny story part about this was I was actually on the phone with our assistant and we were a day away from putting it on the market for real. And we were talking about, hey, you know what? I think we're going to try this new First Look thing. This was on Wednesday. First Look was introduced Friday. So what, four days, five days after that. Wednesday, we're like, okay, we're going to try this for tomorrow. She's like, cool. She starts messing with the listing online, editing it, accidentally makes it active as a First Look property. And that was not the plan, but it all worked out because what we ended up doing was... All the photos and everything were on their description. Everything was ready. Honestly, the only thing that wasn't ready is we hadn't put all the marketing in the house. We hadn't added a key box yet. There was no shoe booties. For sale sign wasn't hung. All the fun things. So what we did was we just said, hey, no showings until tomorrow at 3 p.m., which is when we had planned to come on anyway. And what that did was it actually created a ton of interest, not allowing people to see it for 24 hours, but showing them online. line buzz made a ton of buzz and between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. that next day we had nine showings that's

Joanna: [5:49] a big deal right now that was

Christian: [5:50] huge especially right now so although i can't tell you for sure yet if it's if it worked it worked for what we were trying to do yeah

Joanna: [6:01] I mean, I think that's awesome. As far as like what, you know, happened, do you feel like you've learned a little bit how you'd like to use it in the future? Yeah.

Christian: [6:11] One thing I learned was a lot of agents don't know what the heck it is.

Joanna: [6:15] Oh, yeah.

Christian: [6:16] Because it's brand new. So I was fielding so many calls from agents just trying to understand what we as agents Brokers, whatever you want to call us. What we are allowed to do, what we can do, what we can't do. What they don't look at the news. Yeah. And, you know, I had to become an expert on what it was. And that's when we were like, all right, we need to make a podcast about this. Not only for agents, but also for buyers and sellers so that everyone understands what is going on.

Joanna: [6:43] Yeah, I think that's super important. And I mean, moving forward, I think personally, it sounds like a really great tool for agents or brokers to be able to use. But, you know, would you want to make the same choice again with a listing?

Christian: [6:59] For this house, because it was so unique and we utilized this opportunity because it was unique and we could kind of test and gauge the higher price just to see if it would work. The one thing that First Look does allow that's a little different than an active listing is although you can broadcast it out to all the other websites like Redfin and Zillow and all the other ones out there, homes.com, Realtor.com, all of them. You don't have to, but if you do, when you come active on the market, so you change the status from First Look to active, the days on market and the pricing history disappear. So we tested the house at $1625 million. When we went active just a couple days ago on Wednesday, we dropped, but not really. We set the new price at $1.6 million because after all the feedback from everyone that had seen it, the feedback was the house is beautiful. We think it's slightly overpriced. So we utilize that first look opportunity for exactly what I think it was intended for. It worked out well. I would not always recommend doing this. This was a pretty unique situation. Generally, overpricing your house just to see what happens is not a good idea. I would not recommend that most of the time. But because this was such a unique property. With a unique background, we felt like it was something worth trying. And we had a concrete plan ahead of time what was going to happen. We knew that when we came active after only one week, that was our game plan the whole time, we knew we were going to drop if we didn't get the number of people through or the attention or an offer or if the feedback was what we ended up getting, which was, hey, it's just priced a little high. Um, We knew that that was our game plan up front. It wasn't a wishy-washy, hey, let's just see what happens and figure it out later. It was, no, this is our concrete plan.

Joanna: [9:01] Okay, so it's not like, you know... Oh, I have a new button on the MLS. I'm just going to use that. You choose it for a reason. And when you actually want to get maybe a question answered about your listing, you don't really have to pay a consequence, right?

Christian: [9:21] Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And this is, again, I would not do this on most listings where we overshoot the price just to see. That is not a good plan. No. Although you cannot see the price change on other websites, public-facing websites that buyers see, agents on the Northwest MLS, we see all that. So we can see how long was it at first look and what was the price history. But that doesn't show up on Redfin, Zillow, Homes.com, Realtor, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all those websites.

Joanna: [9:53] Also why it's great to have an agent that you trust and want to work with and knows how to use all of that. Yeah.

Christian: [10:01] And also just because it doesn't show the history online doesn't mean that a buyer didn't see it at 1625 and now it's 16. Like it's only been a week. It's not like they're. Right. Yeah. If they're paying attention to the house, they're going to notice that anyway. So. Okay. One thing to another question to ask is like. Not just can we use First Look, it's what are we trying to actually accomplish with using First Look. Another situation that you might want to use this in is say, let's just pretend like you're getting your house prepped for coming on the market. And part of that process often is you get a seller procured inspection and a sewer scope. Let's pretend something is wrong with the sewer and we're waiting for that to get repaired. That's outside of the house. Maybe they got to dig down and repair a pipe or add a sewer liner or something. The house itself, let's in this situation pretend it's 100% ready. Other than the fact that we're fixing a sewer line and it's kind of messy outside. You could use this First Look opportunity in that situation. You already got the photos done, the staging's done, the marketing's ready to go, the house itself is ready. You could put it on the market as a First Look, advertise it, build up some excitement, and then you can choose do we want to allow showings or not. If the sewer work is really destroying maybe the front entryway or something like that and you can't really get into the house safely, maybe you just don't allow showings. If it's just a little corner of the yard and it's not a big deal, maybe you do allow showings and you just stipulate, hey, just so you know, here's what's going on. Be careful, obviously. But this is happening. It's going to be repaired, obviously, because we're repairing it. But this is a first look because of that.

Joanna: [11:55] But you want to be thoughtful about what the buyers are seeing if you're a seller, right? Right. Like you don't want to have to like, you know, you only get one chance to make a first impression. So you want to make sure that if you are going to allow showings that I don't know, I would say, you know, use it. Use the first look. Carefully.

Christian: [12:18] Yes, I 100% agree. I would not, the first impression is still extremely important. If the house and the photos do not present themselves perfectly as you had planned, don't do it as a first look just to do it.

Joanna: [12:32] No, like if you're not like, if you're not feeling 100% like I feel the house was represented well, don't use First Look. Don't rush is another thing. When you're wanting to sell your house at a good price point, rushing is not the way to go.

Christian: [12:49] Yeah, yeah. And this is another reason why, you know, in this situation, it actually worked well because we were utilizing the feedback that we had received to determine what we should do. And we knew that ahead.

Joanna: [13:03] Well, you guys were good to go. You just had to get your, like, little things that had no effect on what the house looked like.

Christian: [13:10] Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And that's why we did it. We listened to the feedback and then adjusted accordingly.

Joanna: [13:17] You still only get... One first impression with the buyer.

Christian: [13:21] Yeah, 100% agree with that. First impression's huge. And listing it as a first look without professional photos. Or maybe you only have one photo. I've been trying to see what other people are doing with first look. I've seen some properties that only had one exterior photo and they didn't allow any showing access. And I mean, that's an option.

Joanna: [13:43] It's a different way to go.

Christian: [13:44] It's a different way to go. I don't totally understand what the thought process is there, but... No. I mean, they might just be trying to build up excitement and...

Joanna: [13:53] Like, hey, this is coming soon.

Christian: [13:55] Yeah, exactly. Which I guess could work. And this is the other thing about all of this. This is so fresh, so new. We're going to evolve as time goes on and figure out what the best strategy is for you as a seller and buyers. We are then going to share that with you so that you fully understand, excuse me, what is going on and what to expect.

Joanna: [14:19] So you and the example that you gave us, your real-time example of what you just gave us, you guys got a good amount of feedback that really helped how you were going to move forward with your listing. What if you hear nothing?

Christian: [14:34] Crickets is a bad thing to hear. It's a real bad thing to hear. If that happens, you need to understand why. Maybe it's the price. Maybe we limited where the listing appears online because you could choose that. Maybe you checked the wrong box or you did it on purpose. I don't know. Maybe buyers can't actually get out there and tour it. It really just kind of depends on what's going on.

Joanna: [14:58] Yeah, I mean, I would rather have a quiet response on a first look rather than once we fully go on the market. You know, I think there's something to be said about that. But is there a way once you go on first look, if it's crickets, you don't have to go on the market, right? You can also pull back.

Christian: [15:20] I believe you can take it off. Yeah. That's one of those little rules. I haven't actually looked at that one, but I'm pretty sure you can take it off at that point.

Joanna: [15:26] Okay.

Christian: [15:26] Yeah.

Joanna: [15:27] Because that might be good in that scenario. So you can really reassess like what you want to do in that situation. Yes. And why maybe crickets happened.

Christian: [15:39] Exactly. Exactly.

Joanna: [15:41] All right. So what happens to the time and price history before the house becomes active?

Christian: [15:46] Yeah, so time spent as a first look and price adjustments made during that period still remain in the Northwest MLS database like we kind of talked about.

Joanna: [15:56] Like agents can see that.

Christian: [15:57] Brokers, agents, we can all still see that. That doesn't show up on all the public websites like I said before. The other thing that I noted too is, and I don't think this is a rule, I think it's probably just a bug that Redfin hasn't fixed yet. I did an open house during the first look period. It did not show up on Redfin as an open house. So normally like on the app, it'll have like little open house next to it, a little banner. And then it also has like you can search by open house and stuff. That didn't show up on Redfin. It did show up on Zillow and some of the other websites. Interesting. But not on Redfin. So that's something to pay attention to as well. We still had decent traffic through the open house. So I don't know if it necessarily hurt us or anything, but... You know, there is a big population that does utilize Redfin's app to search for homes. So don't use it as gospel because it might not be accurate.

Joanna: [16:54] Okay, so there are two different things here. The active counter and the actual history of the listing starting one at zero doesn't erase the other.

Christian: [17:04] Yeah, exactly. I would not tell a seller like let's try and price the way we want because no one's going to know because agents, brokers, we do know.

Joanna: [17:13] We do know.

Christian: [17:14] We get to see how long it was a first look up to 21 days and we do see the price history. So don't use that as a way that, you know, everyone's going to forget about and not notice. Right. You're not fooling anybody.

Joanna: [17:27] No, someone will find it. And for buyers, you know, this gives you one more useful question. Was this home in First Look before it became active and did anything change?

Christian: [17:40] Yeah, that's a really good point. Yeah. Was there also, was there like anything about the house that was different?

Joanna: [17:47] So what about the seller whose house is completely ready? The staging looks great. The photos look great and they're ready for buyers.

Christian: [17:55] Then I would ask them, like, what are we going to gain by coming on as a first look? If our strategy is to bring everything together for a coordinated launch, you know, going straight to active might be the better choice. First look is optional. You don't have to do that. It's not a required step along the way.

Joanna: [18:14] Yeah, and if we're considering an offer before the full launch, I want the seller to understand the trade-off, right? An early offer might have a price and terms they love, but accepting it also means they won't find out what a broader launch might have produced.

Christian: [18:29] Yeah, that's a really good point. Yeah, neither choice is necessarily wrong. The right decision really depends on the offer too, like what the seller's priorities are, how much uncertainty they're comfortable with. First Look is a tool. It's definitely not a promise of a higher sale price. In fact, it could potentially give you a lower sale price depending on how broad of availability you allowed that property to get. If you only allow it to be seen by agents and not on any public-facing website? That's probably not giving the most buyers the opportunity to spot it and make a good offer on it or even make an offer on it or even see it.

Joanna: [19:12] Nope.

Christian: [19:12] So, yeah. Yeah.

Joanna: [19:13] So for buyers, the first action item is simply ask your agent, does my save search include first look properties?

Christian: [19:24] Yeah.

Joanna: [19:24] Existing NWMLS saved searches and automatic emails set up for active and contingent listings. They do not automatically add this new status, okay? It needs to be included in the search. So if we already created a search for you on the NWMLS, we just need to adjust it.

Christian: [19:41] Yeah. So we need to go through all of our clients that we created those searches for, add First Look as a status to your saved search so that you get all of the listings. In fact, if we don't already have a search set up for you and you are one of our clients because you are thinking that everything is going to show up on Zillow or Redfin or whatever website you like to use, I think you need to reevaluate that choice and let us create a search for you because there are situations where First Look properties are not going to be distributed to the websites, but we as agents are going to get those.

Joanna: [20:18] Right. And depending on what you're looking for, it could be really beneficial for you.

Christian: [20:22] Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I wouldn't assume checking one public website is going to give you the full whole picture.

Joanna: [20:29] No. So let's say your agent sends you a First Look home in Wedgwood. I

Christian: [20:33] wonder why you said that. Maybe because that's where my listing is? Maybe. Maybe. That looks really like a good fit.

Joanna: [20:39] Even if you can't tour it yet, you can use that time to your advantage, right? Research location, talk with your lender about the payment, review comparable sales with your agent, figure out what questions you want answered that you can get answered before you even set foot in the house.

Christian: [20:55] Yeah. Yeah. And if something or if showings are allowed, definitely take that time to go out there and check it out. Again, a seller can accept an offer when it's in that first look period. So I wouldn't necessarily wait until it goes active to go see it. If you see a property that matches all your criteria, get out there and see it. Don't wait. That's how you could potentially lose out on something that's a good fit for you.

Joanna: [21:20] Can and will are very different words, though.

Christian: [21:22] Very, very different. And yeah, definitely have your agent check with the listing and the listing agent and ask them a few questions. A couple of them are, are showings allowed? Because again, during the first look period, the seller doesn't have to allow showings. When is the home scheduled to become active? It's not listed anywhere. We as agents have to reach out to the actual agent, listing agent, and ask them that. And then also, is the seller open to accepting an offer before they go active during the first look period? Or are they going to wait? Again, you can choose what to do during that period as the seller.

Joanna: [22:00] Then you can make a decision based on the home and the seller's actual plan and not just the status label.

Christian: [22:07] Yeah, so let's go over a couple practical details before we wrap up. So First Look is not an open-ended like holding period. Listing Broker, we only have a maximum of 21 days to have this in the First Look window. And again, you can choose any time amount during that First Look. You could have one day First Look, you could have a 21 day and anything in between. This also isn't a shortcut for taking a listing off the market and then bringing it back on the next day as a first look. So let's pretend your house has been on the market for, you know, a hundred days and it just hasn't been selling. You can't just take it off, put it back now as a first look, and then make it go active again. Like MLS was smart enough to not allow that. You have to be off the market for 60 consecutive days before you can come on as a first look.

Joanna: [22:59] And it's not like a coming soon placeholder either, right?

Christian: [23:03] I mean, it is and it isn't. I mean, it depends on what your definition of coming soon is. It kind of is because you can allow showings. You can also not allow showings. So I guess if you wanted to, you could promote the house as like coming soon. You can't see it. But this is going to be coming on in, you know, a week or whatever.

Joanna: [23:24] But you have to have certain requirements met, right? It's not like I'm thinking about listing my house. Maybe it can't be like that. But, you know, it's also interesting to think about why is this happening now, right? There's a bigger industry conversation behind it about how homes are marketed before a full launch. The NWMLS's First Look responds to member feedback and Washington's public marketing requirements and also enables it to resolve its litigation with Compass, which is a nationwide broker.

Christian: [23:57] Yeah, they're a nationwide brokerage. They basically sued the Northwest MLS. There was a lot of litigation. I think this is because of that. Yes. That's why we get to do this now. But for our listeners, the practical distinction is this. Sellers get more choices about the early marketing stage while the listing remains accessible to the entire NWMLS brokerage community. So the backstory explains why we're talking about it, but ultimately your goal should determine whether or not you want to actually use it.

Joanna: [24:27] Right. And for buyers, ask whether First Look is in your search. When you find a home you like, find out whether you can tour it, whether the seller would consider an early offer, and what the listing history shows.

Christian: [24:39] Yeah. And for sellers, ask what First Look would accomplish with your specific house. Is it going to help you coordinate preparation, gather some good feedback, build awareness? Like, what is your goal? And if you can't explain that benefit, maybe don't add that step. Maybe just go straight to active.

Joanna: [24:55] Yeah, and don't confuse a fresh active counter with a home nobody has seen before.

Christian: [25:00] Yeah, just because the days on market looks like zero, you can't assume it wasn't a first look before that just by looking at the public websites. Ask your agent. We can look on the back end and see, hey, was it already on the market as a first look for three weeks?

Joanna: [25:15] Right.

Christian: [25:15] And now it's just coming active and this is the first time you noticed it. Like what was the what's the history there?

Joanna: [25:21] There's still a lot to figure out about how this first look is going to work for everybody, and I'm curious to see how it goes.

Christian: [25:28] Yeah, and we'll keep you up to date on what we learn, and we're definitely going to tell our sellers, you know, as this progresses and as we learn and figure out what strategies can work.

Joanna: [25:38] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [25:38] We're going to implement those strategies with our sellers one on one, not necessarily broadcasting all our favorite strategies to everyone else, but we will definitely tell our clients what's working, what's not working, how we can utilize this to our best advantage to, at the end of the day, give you the best offer, whether that's highest price, best terms, whatever it is based on your situation. While First Look isn't a given for everyone, it's definitely an option. Understanding it, hiring someone that does understand it. Obviously, we do because we already have a listing. Not many agents can say that yet. That is going to be huge for you to understand moving forward so that you can make the best, most knowledgeable choice for you. If you are thinking about selling, please reach out. We would love to help you out. Obviously, we are experienced. We know what we're doing. You can look at our website and schedule time to chat with us right there. AwesomeNossumGroup.com. You can also just go to AwesomeNossumGroup.com/schedule. That will also get you to our scheduling page. We will see you next time. Bye-bye. Bye.