Listing opportunities series, part 5 of 7
Dual Path Marketing keeps an eligible listing in the MLS and also puts it on Hubzu’s online marketing and bidding platform, with you as the listing agent. It can bring more buyers, but only after you and your seller settle price, access, the reserve and who updates each listing.
Dual Path Marketing is one option we teach in KW Default Solutions (KWDS) training for exactly that moment. You keep an eligible listing in the MLS and also put it on Hubzu’s online marketing and bidding platform (Hubzu is a separate company), so the house gets another route to buyers and investors and a scheduled bidding window for them to act in. You stay the listing agent the whole way. (In training you’ll also hear it called Signature Homes or the Seller Signature Showcase.)
It also creates coordination work, because the seller, the buyer agents and anyone looking at the house need to understand how the two routes fit together.
Start with the problem you’re trying to solve
If the house is priced above the competition, another website won’t change what buyers can buy down the street. If people can’t get in to see it or the condition information is missing, more attention may just bring more questions.
So look at price, condition, access and feedback first, and then decide whether exposure is really the issue. Training talks about situations like as-is sales, investor resales, vacant homes and listings that have gone quiet. Those are good starting points for a conversation, but they aren’t an eligibility list and they don’t promise an offer the seller will take.
Say “auction” and explain it
An online listing auction under a voluntary seller program is not a foreclosure sale, and the house doesn’t have to be bank-owned or in foreclosure to use it. Your seller should understand that, and buyers should get an accurate explanation of how this particular sale works.
The approach uses a reserve, which is the minimum price used in the bidding. It’s not the same number as the list price, and neither one is necessarily the final price. Hubzu’s published Signature Homes FAQ says the seller may accept or reject a bid based on its amount, financing, closing date or other terms, including a bid at or above the reserve. Still, go through the current agreement with your seller so you both know exactly when a decision is theirs and what they’re committing to, rather than summing it up as “you never have to sell.”
If the homeowner is facing foreclosure, keep that review separate. Adding a marketing platform doesn’t push back a legal deadline.
Two routes, one set of information
You still do the listing work: an accurate description, honest photos, authorized access, seller updates and the local transaction requirements. Before the listing goes live on both, decide how buyers book showings, where questions go and how bids and other offers are handled, and follow your MLS and brokerage rules, including any required disclosures. A buyer shouldn’t discover a different process only after clicking through to another site.
A fictional example: a vacant house is in the MLS and on Hubzu. The seller approves a price change, but only the MLS gets updated. Now one buyer is looking at the new number and another is looking at the old one, and you have a mess you could have prevented. The same thing can happen with condition details, showing instructions or status. Decide who makes each change in each place and how you’ll check it’s done, instead of assuming everything syncs.
Walk through the money before you sell the benefit
The buyer’s bid, the buyer’s total cost and the seller’s net are three different numbers, and the seller should see all three.
Hubzu describes participation in Signature Homes as free to the seller. Your commission is negotiated separately, and the seller still has the usual costs of selling, so prepare a net sheet under the actual agreements. A buyer premium may apply under the sale terms, which is an added charge to the buyer. Get the current amount and terms from the listing rather than repeating a percentage from an old training. If a buyer is financing, check how the contract and the charges fit their loan, and don’t promise a premium can always be financed.
Know what happens when bidding ends
Before you go live, you should be able to tell your seller how they’ll see the activity, what decisions they can make under the agreement and what paperwork comes next. A winning bid on a platform usually still has to become a purchase contract, with local documents, financing and other conditions. On a possible short sale, the lienholder’s approval is still a separate step.
Find out what happens if there’s no acceptable result, too. Under the program terms the property may go into another bidding cycle, but get the answer from the current agreement, not from assuming every house sells in one round.
Setup and permission are different steps
Having a Hubzu account doesn’t authorize you to market any particular house, and applying for KWDS listing opportunities is a separate process again. Neither replaces your seller’s permission, the listing agreements or approval of that specific property. It sounds like paperwork, but it matters when you’re trying to move fast, and it’s much better to catch a missing approval before the listing is live.
Dual Path is a useful option to understand, whether you’re working with a homeowner, an investor or another eligible seller. The recommendation should still come from that seller’s goals and that house’s situation.
Before you bring it up with a seller, put the two routes side by side on one page: how buyers take part, what it costs and who pays, which decisions stay with the seller and what you’ll keep handling. Mark anything you can’t answer yet and get it confirmed before you ask the seller to agree.
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