Buying an off market property

There is the traditional way of purchasing a property – spending your spare time constantly scrolling realestate spending your weekends going from open home to open home and competing with other buyers. Sellers have the upper hand when it comes to this route especially when they have multiple offers in play. This puts more pressure and emphasis on your budget and if your offer can’t compete you’re out of the running. Same with auctions, another high intensity, stressful situation going up against other buyers, this is a recipe for emotional bidding and spending more than you anticipated. 

The alternative is buying off-market properties which eliminates many of these problems. However many buyers don’t have access to these or even know there is such a thing. 

Simply, an off market property is a property for sale but not listed. In today’s market we are seeing an increase in off market properties as sellers are either; not sure they want to see until they receive a great offer or they want to be discreet about selling their home. 

Selling off market might seem like a disadvantage to the seller (not having a bidding war) however it can be a huge benefit for many sellers. No need to spend money on marketing, no advertising means more discreteness and no need to spend money getting their home professionally styled and photographed. 

The pros of buying off market properties:

1. Getting to know the sellers – through the agent you’ll be able to find out what the sellers motivations are, why they are selling and what number would suffice. This empowers you even more and gives us the upper hand when it comes to negotiating.
2. Less competition – usually we are the only ones that know about the property which means we’re in a much stronger position and we can tailor your offer to best suit the sellers needs and wants which usually leads to a successful purchase. 
3. More time for decision making – during an auction you usually find yourself in a bidding war making snap decisions without thinking. Buying off market allows you time to consider each next step. 

But what are the cons? 

1. Are they really selling? Prepare yourself for seller withdrawals. As mentioned before, sometimes the agent can present an offer to someone who wasn’t originally selling. They may take the offer but then change their mind realising that their actually not ready to sell. Although seller withdrawals are completely legal it can feel disappointing and unfortunately this can happen. 
2. Privacy – some sellers sell off market to control privacy and don’t want people to know their selling. This could be due to them being high profile or simply they don’t want their friends to know they are needing to sell. Some sellers will ask you to sign a non-disclosure agreement and frown on buyers who spill the beans which can sometimes mean they withdraw from the deal all together.
3. Hard to find – the biggest and most obvious con is that buying off market is difficult because they aren’t advertised and aren’t usually available to everyday buyers

Then how do you get access to off market properties? 

Well, you could call real estate agents all day every day, spending lots of time and energy creating great relationships, hoping to get insider knowledge and first access. Or you can simply engage a buyer’s agent. 

At Shire Property Scout we have a great network of agents in the Sutherland Shire who we know and trust. And who know and trust us. We are the first to know about a lot of properties before they hit the market. We also have close relationships with some agents where we can bring them a client brief and they can call the owners of suitable properties to see if they’re interested in selling. 

We’ve secured over 500 properties using this strategy and we know it works. We also know that this process requires quick actions. Off market properties don’t stay secret forever, once we have the information the agent will give us a short time frame before they either send it to other buyers agents or put it online. So if looking to secure your dream home in the Sutherland Shire and are lending approved ready to buy then get in touch. 

Finding your dream home doesn’t have to be complicated, exhausting and frustrating. At Shire Property Scout we want to make the process as enjoyable and least complicated as possible