The ‘Off Market’ Unicorn! So, you’re hoping to find the perfect property and not get beaten to it with all the other buyers out there every Saturday morning? You want the best price, right? You’ve
The ‘Off Market’ Unicorn!
So, you’re hoping to find the perfect property and not get beaten to it with all the other buyers out there every Saturday morning? You want the best price, right? You’ve missed out on your dream property more times than you want to remember?
When we speak to potential new clients, they inevitably ask the same question every time.
“Do you have access to off-market properties?”
The answer to this is not simply yes or no, let me explain. To be as transparent as possible, we at The Home Buyer Helper, don’t want you to think we can guarantee you access to mysterious unicorn properties no one else is going to see. And if someone tells you they get 40 of these a week, they’re not being very truthful.
Firstly, what is an off-market property?
Now, our definition is going to be a lot different to what a lot of Sales Agents and some Buyer’s Agents will tell you. In our opinion, a true ‘Off-Market’ property is one that is not advertised to the market and is shown by agents to a select number of potential buyers (or their agents) with a view to selling the property with minimal exposure.
Now, why would someone sell their property ‘Off-Market’. In our experience, there are usually only a handful of reasons that a vendor would want to sell their property this way:
- Privacy – the vendor (or owner) wants to sell the property without the neighbours, friends or family seeing a giant ‘For Sale’ sign out the front or their home splashed across the internet. This could be for many reasons like divorce, financial distress, family conflict, a celebrity owner or simply because the owner is very private.
- The property is very unique. Some properties are just not going to appeal to the broader market so rather than spend a fortune on staging, photography and having the agent doing open home after open home, it’s best to target the property to a select number of potential buyers in the first instance.
- The vendor has unrealistic price expectations, so rather than spend money and time marketing the property, the sales agent keeps the property ‘in their pocket’ for the Unicorn buyer that comes along who will pay a premium for the property.
- There’s “something” about the property which means it’s best to take this sales approach, there may be some notorious history about the property, or it’s currently owned by a hoarder, you get the gist.
Now, let’s focus on what is NOT an off-market property. (In our humble opinion).
- The property is being shopped around ‘Pre-sale’. So, the agent has the photographs and ad copy ready, they have a launch date and decide to drum up some sort of exclusive opportunity pitch as part of their overall marketing plan before it hits the online portals, and the sign board gets installed.
- The owners don’t want to pay any marketing costs. They’ve signed the agreement, the agent is going to advertise the open home but because the seller doesn’t want to shell out some cash, the agent decides it’s ‘not really on the market’.
- There’s a ‘For Sale’ sign out the front but no other marketing has been done. See the point above.
- There’s an Auction date already set. Come on, it’s on the market! (And yes, we have seen this done).
Now as Buyer’s Agents we receive many emails every week titled ‘Off Market Opportunity’. Most, and we’re talking 99% of these fit into the points above. Very few meet our definition of a true ‘Off-Market’ property.
Now, we aren’t here to bag how an agent wants to market a property for sale in any way, but as a potential buyer, you should be aware that these emails are undoubtedly being sent to every Buyer’s Agent in the agents database and probably to every prospective buyer who has enquired about properties in the price range they are chasing.
There are times when we will receive a call from an agent enquiring if we have any clients who may suit an actual off market property, but these calls happen a lot less frequently than 40 emails a week.
So, to answer the question, “Do you have access to off-market properties?”
Well, the real answer is ‘sometimes’ and it depends on how you define an off-market opportunity.
As your Buyer’s Agent, our job is to formulate the best buying strategy for you and it’s up to us to source the right property and whether or not that property is on or off-market, it’s our job to find it. A good Buyer’s Agent will leave no stone unturned to find you the right property to meet your goals.
And remember, just because it’s ‘Off-Market’, it doesn’t make it suitable for you.
