She says it cheapens a listing to put it there and let everyone in town know our home is for sale. I always thought the MLS would help our home sell quickest for the most money. That Realtor gave you very bad advice. Keeping your home listing out of the MLS hurts you but helps the Realtor. She'll earn a larger percentage of the sales commission if she doesn't have to share the sale with an agent from another firm.
Some firms pay a bonus when one or two agents from the same brokerage handle the sale.
MLS is the most powerful sales tool realty agents have. It exposes your home to the largest number of prospective home buyers, thus increasing the probability of a quick sale for top dollar. Based on that agent's selfish, bad advice to you, I suggest you list your home for sale with another agent. We bought our home almost two years ago. Before we bought, we checked at city hall to see if the back yard is large enough for us to add a family room to the rear of our home.