Derrick Buckspan is the broker owner of RE/MAX Shoreline, with offices in Maine. He has been a licensed real estate professional in Maine since 2003.

You hire an agent to sell your home for the best price. That means putting it in front of every possible buyer. But a growing practice in the real estate industry works against that goal — and most homeowners have no idea it exists.

Large national real estate firms are building closed, proprietary listing channels. In these systems, some homes are shown exclusively to buyers represented by the same firm — before the home is ever publicly marketed.

Think about what that means. Instead of every licensed agent and every qualified buyer seeing your home, only a select group gets early access. Less competition means fewer offers. Fewer offers means lower prices.

There is a financial reason this happens. When the same firm represents both the buyer and the seller, it collects commission on both sides of the transaction. The seller’s agent has a financial incentive that has nothing to do with the seller getting the best price. It has everything to do with keeping the deal in-house.

This is not a hypothetical. It is happening now, in major markets across the country.

Maine is fortunate to have Maine Listings, the statewide MLS operated by the Maine Association of Realtors. It is one of only a handful of true statewide MLS systems in the
country. Maine buyers and sellers benefit from a broad, open, cooperative marketplace where every licensed agent can access every listing.

That is not the norm everywhere. In many states, listing data is fragmented across dozens of regional systems, making it easier for large firms to route listings through their own private channels before they ever reach the broader market.

Maine’s system is worth knowing about. And it is worth protecting.

Earlier this year, the Washington State Senate voted 49-0 to ban the practice of marketing
homes exclusively to a limited group of buyers. The bill was recently signed into law by Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson. This is a statement that this practice raises serious concerns about consumer protection.

Other states are paying attention. The conversation is national, and it is moving quickly.
If you are selling a home in Maine, here is what you should ask your agent: Will my home be listed on Maine Listings from day one? Will it be marketed to every buyer in the market?

You deserve a clear, direct answer. If the response is vague — if your agent talks about “exclusive marketing periods” or “coming soon” strategies that limit who sees your home — that is information. It tells you whose interests are being prioritized.

If you are buying, ask a similar question: Am I seeing every available home, or only the ones my firm wants to show me?

I have been a licensed real estate professional in Maine for more than 20 years. My position has not changed: more exposure means more competition, and more competition produces better outcomes for sellers. Every time.

The real estate industry should get ahead of this — through clear rules, transparent practices and a commitment to putting the client first. If we do not, the government will do it for us. And based on what happened in Washington, they will not be gentle about it.