For years, real estate agents have relied on informal and fragmented communication channels to share vital information about upcoming properties. Office watercooler conversations, private Facebook groups, and scattered WhatsApp chats have long served as the makeshift infrastructure for agents attempting to spread the word about houses and condos preparing to hit the market.
Ottawa-based Derek Hooper, a third-generation real estate agent, realized that this antiquated approach needed a modern overhaul. His solution is FirstList, an innovative real estate technology company designed to take pre-marketing far beyond individual brokerage offices and private agent networks. By bridging the gap between private preparation and public exposure, FirstList allows upcoming properties to appear on major real estate websites even before they are officially listed for sale on standard boards.
Following its acquisition by myAbode last November, FirstList has launched a sophisticated coming soon distribution network. This infrastructure enables agents from any brokerage to advertise their upcoming properties through participating websites. The network already includes prominent consumer-facing property portals such as Property.ca and Condos.ca, both of which are major brands owned by MyAbode.
The service provides a unique window of opportunity, allowing agents to publicly market coming soon listings for up to three days before their official launch. This strategic runway gives upcoming properties a vital head start, allowing them to capture early buyer interest and generate momentum before hitting the broader multiple listing service.
How the Network Works
The mechanics of the FirstList distribution network are designed to balance broad visibility with strict lead generation and compliance controls. Agents and brokerages can seamlessly display the network’s upcoming inventory by embedding a custom feed directly onto their own professional websites.
For prospective home buyers, the system offers an intuitive browsing experience. Consumers can explore rich neighbourhood details and comprehensive property specifications without being forced to create an account or register immediately. However, registration becomes a requirement if users wish to view specific property addresses and exact asking prices. Once a buyer registers to unlock these details, their contact information transforms into a high-intent potential lead for the specific agent whose website is hosting the feed.
Throughout this digital handshake, transparency remains a priority. Hooper emphasizes that the listing brokerage always remains clearly identified wherever its properties appear across the network, ensuring that credit and branding stay with the rightful firm.
From Office Conversations to a National Network
The inspiration for FirstList was born out of the daily frustrations Hooper encountered while navigating his own real estate career. In standard practice, agents often begin working closely with home sellers months before a property is physically ready to be showcased to the general public. Some homeowners require substantial time to complete essential repairs, fresh painting, or professional home staging, while others face delicate personal circumstances that dictate a very specific timeline for a sale.
During this extended pre-listing preparation period, agents naturally want to share preliminary information about upcoming opportunities without triggering a full, immediate public marketing campaign.
"Some were doing it by standing up at their office meeting talking about what they had coming down the pipe," Hooper recalls. "Others were putting it in WhatsApp and Facebook groups."
Despite massive technological leaps in how everyday consumers search for properties online, Hooper noticed a glaring industry void: little to no technological progress had been made in how agents communicate and collaborate on upcoming opportunities behind the scenes.
That persistent professional frustration prompted Hooper to team up with Andrew Paliga, a former Shopify product leader, to establish FirstList in 2023. The platform was architected to facilitate seamless collaboration among agents while simultaneously giving brokerages granular control over who gains access to their sensitive pre-market inventory.
When myAbode acquired the company in November 2025, it unlocked an unprecedented opportunity to scale that foundational model. Hooper quickly recognized that growing the business was as much about cultivating a robust digital marketplace as it was about writing software. It required connecting agents directly with properties while engineering smarter, wider ways to distribute those listings to the public.
Pre-marketing concepts have also gained significant traction south of the border, most notably in the United States through companies like Compass and CEO Robert Reffkin’s vocal promotion of private exclusive listings. Hooper notes that the rising prominence of pre-marketing in the U.S. helped cast a much-needed spotlight on the latent demand for similar, structured services within the Canadian real estate landscape.
With thousands of active agents already utilizing FirstList across Ontario, the company identified a logical next step: building upon its existing internal network by distributing coming soon listings to a broader audience through public-facing property websites.
Navigating Canada’s Listing Rules
This major network expansion arrives at a time when Canadian real estate professionals are operating under stricter regulatory frameworks. Specifically, agents must navigate the Canadian Real Estate Association’s (CREA) Realtor Co-operation Policy, which was initially introduced in January 2024 and later refined through subsequent amendments.
The policy draws a sharp regulatory line between private exclusive listings and publicly marketed properties. Under the guidelines, any property that is publicly marketed must be submitted to the local multiple listing service within the local board’s designated deadline, which cannot exceed three days.
Hooper acknowledges that the policy was introduced to address legitimate, growing concerns regarding how certain agents were handling coming soon listings across the country.
"There was a lot of inconsistency in the market with how coming soon and off-markets are being handled," Hooper says. He recalls instances in the past where properties were advertised as coming soon for weeks—or even months—without ever making an appearance on the official multiple listing service. In some cases, property owners may not have fully understood the implications of the alternative marketing strategies their agents were deploying.
Nevertheless, Hooper believes those problematic practices represented a relatively minor fraction of the broader industry. He notes that the vast majority of agents were simply searching for honest, effective ways to better serve their clients’ unique timelines.
To ensure strict compliance, FirstList embedded CREA’s mandatory requirements directly into the core logic of its technology. The platform allows agents to share listings privately within restricted circles or lawfully distribute eligible coming soon properties to the public for the permitted window. The company clarifies that true exclusive listings and assignment sales remain safely locked within its restricted network and are entirely excluded from the public-facing feeds.
"We took all of the rules in the policy and we built them into the sharing logic of our platform," Hooper explains.
Building Beyond Ontario
FirstList soft-launched its ambitious new distribution network in Ottawa on October 13 and is actively expanding its footprint into the Greater Toronto Area.
Adoption rates continue to climb steadily. Hooper reports that more than 10,000 agents already utilize the platform in their daily operations, including professionals from prominent brokerages such as REVEL Realty and Harvey Kalles Real Estate.
The business operates on a predictable software-as-a-service subscription model, charging individual agents $49 per month. Additionally, customized discount structures are made available to brokerages depending on their overall team size and organizational needs. Participating brokerages receive private internal listing-sharing networks for their own agents, while individual users retain the flexibility to distribute eligible inventory through the broader network.
Looking ahead, Hooper expresses clear intentions to expand the company’s presence on a national scale. He positions FirstList’s proprietary technology as an advanced infrastructure tool that individual brokerages would find prohibitively expensive and time-consuming to replicate on their own.
"We really felt like we’re in this unique position that most brokerages won’t be able to build what we’ve built in terms of the cross-brokerage sharing capabilities," Hooper says.