[smallnamespace]

> The rest are the "dog properties" that go on the MLS and need heavy marketing to sell.

That's... a strange way to look at the housing market. The norm is to list your property and then see what bids you get. Putting your house on the market is not some weird trick to pass a crappy house on to a bunch of rubes, or am I misunderstanding you?

Like, how do you reliably find a willing buyer pre-listing, and how do you know that's a good price (other than just blindly trusting your agent), if you don't even bother listing it? Listing is as much about price discovery as it is about finding more buyers.

[ticviking]

The point is that the best homes(top 10%) rarely need to go on the market.

The hotter the market, the more realtors know buyers willing to pay a lot for the first home that meets all their needs. Hence more homes are sold before listed.

[daurnimator]

> The point is that the best homes(top 10%) rarely need to go on the market.

I think that's locale specific. Except in the 15million+ bracket, auctions (here in Melbourne at least) tend to get the best money for the seller.