This is an estimate for planning. It is not a quote, an appraisal, an offer, a loan offer, or tax or legal advice, and Rudy is a real estate agent, not a lender or tax professional.
The five paths, in plain English
Open-market listing
Your agent puts the home in the MLS, where it flows out to public home-search sites. It’s marketed with photos, showings and open houses, and every buyer and agent can find it at once.
When owners often choose it: When the aim is the widest audience and a complete test of price, with time set aside for prep, showings and escrow.
Tradeoffs: Count on more showings and a price history that’s public. You pay for prep before the sale. From an accepted offer, escrow most often lasts 30 to 45 days, and an inspection may lead to a request for repairs or credits.
Pre-market or Coming Soon
Buyers in a smaller group get first access, and the public launch may follow later or not at all. Choices include Coming Soon, delayed marketing and office-only listings, which stay inside one brokerage.
When owners often choose it: When you value privacy, want to set the pace for timing and showings, or need room to negotiate something like a later move-out date, ahead of maximum exposure.
Tradeoffs: Less exposure can mean fewer offers to compare and a weaker read on price. In CRMLS, Coming Soon ends after 21 days at most; in SDMLS, after 30; neither allows in-person showings. A seller form is signed first. Under Zillow’s standards, a home that’s publicly marketed without going into the MLS within one business day won’t show on Zillow or Trulia for the term of that agreement.
As-is or cash offer
With cash in hand, the buyer accepts the home as-is, frequently after a single walkthrough. You type a real offer into the column, so the result reflects that buyer’s price.
When owners often choose it: When speed, fewer contingencies, or avoiding repairs and showings is the priority.
Tradeoffs: A cash price often sits below open-market value because the buyer brings speed and certainty, and offers vary from buyer to buyer. Read the terms to learn what the buyer pays for and what stays on your side. Many cash sales close within 1 to 3 weeks, though each buyer’s timeline is its own.
Rent it out, sell later
You move out, place a tenant in the home and sell it after the years you select.
When owners often choose it: When the rent covers a large part of the monthly cost, a sale down the line suits you, or the move may turn out to be temporary.
Tradeoffs: Plan for property management or your own hours, plus repairs and gaps between tenants. Local rules on rent and notice apply too. A long stretch as a rental can affect the home-sale tax exclusion under federal rules. That exclusion looks for ownership of 2 years or more plus 2 years or more as your residence, with both counted in the 5 years before the sale. Talk with your CPA.
Keep the home
You remain in the home as its owner. Because nothing sells, today’s selling costs are zero.
When owners often choose it: When the house still suits your plans, the loan you have now is worth holding onto, or a move date isn’t on the calendar.
Tradeoffs: Equity remains in the property rather than in your bank account. The loan, tax, insurance and upkeep continue. Market conditions decide the home’s future value, so any growth rate you plug in is a guess, never a forecast.
Pre-market and coming-soon sales: the rules
Your listing brokerage, your MLS and national REALTOR® policy each set rules for quiet or early marketing, and sites like Zillow layer their own standards on top.
Nationally, the Clear Cooperation Policy from the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) is still in effect. Once public marketing begins, the listing broker has to enter the home in the MLS within one business day. Public marketing covers things like a yard sign, flyer, email blast, public website or a sharing network that spans brokerages. On March 25, 2025, NAR put Multiple Listing Options for Sellers into effect, letting sellers choose one of two routes in place of a full public listing. With delayed marketing, the listing goes into the MLS for other agents to see, while its release to public home-search sites waits out a period set by the MLS. An office-only listing is on file with the MLS but kept from agents at other brokerages and from public marketing. Both call for a signed seller disclosure up front.
Coronado listings go through one of two MLSs, as they do across San Diego County. One is the San Diego MLS (SDMLS). The other is the California Regional MLS (CRMLS). Their rules differ.
With SDMLS, Coming Soon can run up to 30 days. MLS agents see the listing, and you’re free to advertise it and take an offer, but showings in person and open houses aren’t permitted. Neither public portals nor IDX feeds, which carry listings to other brokers’ websites, receive it. Going Active ends the Coming Soon option for that listing. In SDMLS, NAR’s delayed-marketing option takes the shape of an Active listing hidden from the web; it can last indefinitely, and in-person showings are permitted.
With CRMLS, Coming Soon has a 21-day ceiling, after which the listing goes Active. Showings of every kind are off limits, and advertising must identify it as Coming Soon. As a rule, CRMLS Coming Soon listings are sent to portals such as Homes.com and Realtor.com and to IDX feeds, though a 2026 seller form can block IDX distribution. Once out of Coming Soon, a listing can’t re-enter it. CRMLS offers no delayed-marketing option, and it holds that public marketing beyond the brokerage requires the listing to be in the MLS.
In California, the seller’s MLS choices go on a C.A.R. form known as the MLSA (the Multiple Listing Service Addendum), which saw changes in September 2025, and either MLS can ask for an extra form of its own. The seller’s signature on the NAR disclosure confirms they know what they’re trading away, such as the broad, instant reach a listing gets from the MLS.
Zillow’s Listing Access Standards add one more check: a home marketed publicly that hasn’t gone into the MLS inside one business day won’t be displayed on Zillow or Trulia while that listing agreement is in force. When a home is kept away from public marketing, Zillow asks the seller for a signed waiver that lists the downsides.
These rules have been reworked in several rounds since 2025, and a brokerage may also have a policy of its own. Part of Rudy’s job is to check which MLS your home would go into and which rules cover it on your calendar.
Rules as of 2026-10-30. Sources: NAR: Multiple Listing Options for Sellers; NAR: MLS Clear Cooperation Policy (Policy Statement 8.0); NAR: Multiple Listing Options for Sellers FAQ (May 27, 2025); NAR: Office Exclusive Listings, Pre-Marketing Guidance; SDMLS: DMEL & DMLE: What’s the Difference? (Coming Soon Status, revised July 2026); SDMLS: The SELM Is a Discontinued Form (use the C.A.R. MLSA); CRMLS: Coming Soon Status; CRMLS: Limited Exposure for Coming Soon FAQs; CRMLS: C.A.R. Form MLSA (Multiple Listing Service Addendum) FAQs; Zillow: Listing Access Standards (PDF). Your agent will confirm what applies to your home.
About these numbers
- What you see are planning estimates based on what you entered, not an appraisal, a buyer’s offer or a market forecast.
- Commission is always up for negotiation with your agent and gets written into the listing agreement. Selling costs in the results are based on the rates you put in.
- The holding-cost line is your loan interest plus property tax, insurance and HOA dues, counted month by month until the sale closes.
- Money you receive at closing isn’t equal to money you receive years later. Income tax, depreciation and what the cash could earn in the meantime aren’t in the rent and keep columns.
- The math doesn’t include tax on your gain. A CPA is the right person to ask about the home-sale exclusion, particularly if you’ll rent the home out before selling.
Questions owners ask
Which MLS will my Coronado listing go into?
Coronado homes, like others in San Diego County, are listed through SDMLS or CRMLS, and their Coming Soon rules differ. SDMLS allows up to 30 days, with no in-person showings, and keeps Coming Soon listings away from public portals. CRMLS allows up to 21 days, with no showings of any kind, and usually sends those listings to portals such as Homes.com and Realtor.com. Rudy confirms which MLS and rules apply to your home before you pick a path.
What do I sign before a quiet start?
It depends on the path. For a delayed-marketing or office-only listing, NAR’s 2025 policy has you sign a seller disclosure first, confirming you understand the MLS exposure you’d be giving up or delaying. Your MLS choices are recorded on C.A.R.’s MLSA, and each MLS may add its own form, such as the Coming Soon forms SDMLS and CRMLS use. Rudy explains each one before anything begins.
Can buyers tour my home while it’s marketed quietly?
The listing type decides it. Coming Soon allows no in-person showings in SDMLS and no showings of any kind in CRMLS. SDMLS’s version of NAR’s delayed-marketing option, an Active listing with internet publishing turned off, does allow in-person showings and has no time limit. CRMLS doesn’t offer delayed marketing.
Is commission something we can talk about?
Yes. Commission is always negotiable, and the rate you agree on goes in the listing agreement. That one rate drives the open-market, pre-market and rent-and-sell-later results here. Compare two or three rates to see how your net changes.
How do I compare a cash offer with a listing?
Put a real as-is or cash offer into the cash column. The tool doesn’t build in a discount, and every buyer’s offer is different. A cash offer frequently comes in under open-market value, with speed and certainty as the payoff. Many cash deals wrap up in 1 to 3 weeks, depending on the buyer, while a listing generally needs 30 to 45 days of escrow after acceptance, with prep and market time before that. Check which costs each buyer covers, then compare the two nets.
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