Broker tour is the day local agents preview every new listing for their buyers. In San Francisco, broker tour runs every Tuesday, scheduled by district in two-hour blocks from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. In Marin, broker tour runs Wednesdays (Novato, Southern Marin, West Marin) and Thursdays (Central Marin). If you're preparing to list, lining up your launch with tour day is one of the most underrated levers you can pull on the seller side.
What broker tour actually is
Broker tour (also called "caravan" or "MLS tour") is the weekday window when active real estate agents fan out to preview newly listed homes for their buyer clients. It's an agent-only event organized through the San Francisco Association of Realtors (SFAR) and the Marin Association of Realtors (MAR), with listings grouped geographically so agents can move through a tight cluster of homes in a single morning.
For sellers, tour day is the first real impression your home makes on the buyer side of the market. A strong tour — agents lingering, asking questions, texting clients from the kitchen — almost always translates into stronger weekend open-house traffic and more competitive offers. A quiet tour is a useful signal too: it tells you and your agent something needs to change before the weekend.
San Francisco broker tour schedule by district
SF broker tour is held every Tuesday. Listings appear in the SFAR tour book in two-hour windows based on their district:
Tuesday morning blocks
- 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM: District 8 (all sub-districts); District 9 (sub-districts D, F, G, H & T only)
- 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM: District 7 (all sub-districts)
- 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM: Districts 1 and 6 (all sub-districts)
Tuesday afternoon blocks
- 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM: District 5 (all sub-districts)
- 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Districts 2, 3, and 4 (all sub-districts)
- 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM: District 9 (sub-districts A, B, C, E & J only); District 10 (all sub-districts)
All-day lockbox
- 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM: All declined-showings / lockbox listings are previewable throughout the day.
SF district reference
| District 1 | Central Richmond, Inner Richmond, Jordan Park / Laurel Heights, Lake Street, Lone Mountain, Outer Richmond, Sea Cliff |
|---|---|
| District 2 | Central Sunset, Golden Gate Heights, Inner Parkside, Outer Parkside, Outer Sunset, Parkside |
| District 3 | Barbary Coast, Chinatown, Embarcadero, Financial District, Fisherman's Wharf, Jackson Square, Lower Nob Hill, Nob Hill, North Beach, Polk Gulch, Telegraph Hill, Union Square, part of Russian Hill |
| District 4 | Balboa Terrace, Diamond Heights, Forest Hill, Forest Hill Extension, Ingleside Terrace, Midtown Terrace, Miraloma Park, Monterey Heights, Mount Davidson Manor, Saint Francis Wood, Sherwood Forest, Sunnyside, West Portal, Westwood Highlands, Westwood Park |
| District 5 | Noe Valley, Eureka Valley, Cole Valley, Haight-Ashbury, Lower Haight, Mission Dolores, Dolores Heights, Corona Heights, Buena Vista, Ashbury Heights |
| District 6 | Anza Vista, Hayes Valley, Lower Pacific Heights |
| District 7 | Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights, Cow Hollow, Marina |
| District 8 | Downtown, Financial District / Barbary Coast, Nob Hill, North Beach, Russian Hill, Telegraph Hill, North Waterfront, Tenderloin, Van Ness / Civic Center |
| District 9 | Bernal Heights, Inner Mission, Mission Bay, Potrero Hill, South of Market (SoMa), Yerba Buena, South Beach, Central Waterfront / Dogpatch |
| District 10 | Bayview, Crocker Amazon, Excelsior, Hunters Point, Ingleside, Ingleside Heights, Lakeshore, Merced Heights, Mission Terrace, Oceanview, Outer Mission, Portola, Silver Terrace, Visitacion Valley |
Marin broker tour schedule
Marin's tour is split across two days and four regional loops. If you're listing a home anywhere in Marin, your agent should already know which tour your home belongs on.
Wednesday tours
- Novato Tour — 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM
- Southern Marin Tour — 10:30 AM to 2:00 PM. Areas: Belvedere, Mill Valley, Sausalito, Marin City, Tiburon.
- West Marin Tour — 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Areas: Point Reyes, Tomales, Stinson Beach, Muir Beach, Inverness, Olema, Bolinas.
Thursday tour
- Central Marin Tour — 10:30 AM to 2:00 PM. Areas: Corte Madera, Fairfax, Kentfield, Greenbrae, Larkspur, Ross, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Woodacre, San Geronimo, Lagunitas, Forest Knolls, Nicasio.
What broker tour means for sellers
If you're preparing to list, here's how I think about tour day with my own seller clients. A typical SF listing goes live on a Friday, holds open houses that weekend, and gets its first broker tour the following Tuesday. That sequencing matters: you get one weekend of warm-up traffic before the agent community walks through, which usually means a busier, more attentive tour and more useful feedback.
The home itself should be staged for tour day exactly as it would be for a private buyer showing. Lights on, blinds open, music low, no clutter, no pets underfoot. Agents form their gut read in the first sixty seconds, and that read is what shapes whether they bring their buyers back over the weekend.
The most useful single instruction I give sellers on tour day: leave the house. Agents talk more honestly when sellers aren't in earshot, and honest agent reactions are the most valuable feedback you'll get before offers come in.
A few practical items that consistently move the needle:
- Clean printed flyers and a disclosure QR code on the kitchen counter. Agents are previewing twenty homes in two hours — make it easy for them to remember yours.
- Pre-sale inspection reports stacked and visible. Agents will quietly judge how prepared the seller is. Organization signals professionalism.
- A clear story on any unpermitted work. If your home has unpermitted square footage, finished basements, or work done without a final, this will come up on tour. Much better to have a clear, honest answer ready than to be caught off-guard.
Not every home needs a packed broker tour to sell well — quieter price points and unusual properties sometimes find their buyer on a different rhythm — but in most segments of SF and Marin, a strong tour day is one of the cleanest leading indicators of a strong sale.
What it looks like if you're buying
If you're working with an agent on the buy side, broker tour day is when they're out gathering intel on new inventory before the weekend rush. The best buyer agents text their clients from tour with quick reads — what felt overpriced, what showed better in person than online, what's likely to go fast. If your agent isn't doing this on Tuesdays in SF or Wednesdays and Thursdays in Marin, that's worth a conversation.
Frequently asked questions
What day is broker tour in San Francisco?
What day is broker tour in Marin?
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Thinking of selling a home in SF or Marin?
Thinking about selling in SF or Marin?
If you're considering listing, I'd love to talk through your timing, your prep, and what a realistic tour day could look like for your home.
23+ years selling homes across San Francisco and Marin. For seller questions, listing strategy, pricing conversations, or buyer-side inquiries, reach out directly — I respond fast.
