Off-Market Listing: Who Benefits? The Buyer, Broker Or The Seller?
Recently a $27 million town house sold successfully and yet there were no open houses, single online photo or even a bit of advertising. These off-market deals best known as whisper listings have always been the purview of the high-end market. Properties with over $20 million price tags are shopped without an element of advertising. Nowadays, this hush-hush type of marketing has crawled in to other price points below $1 million. Whatever has really pushed this form of approach is related to the shortage of homes for sale.
Shortage of homes for sale has forced agents to use other ways to drum up inventories. Off-market tactics are gaining popularity in many markets where there is scarcity of inventory.
“My home…it is my retreat and resting place…” ~ Michel de Montaigne
Reasons Why Agents Are Shunning Away From Limelight
Some situations make off-market listing favorable for both the seller and the agent. Take a situation where a celebrity doesn’t want his/her transactions to be read in the tabloids, this type of approach make a perfect sense. Some sellers don’t want to handle large amount of buyers while others try to skip the hassle involved in getting their property ready for the show. Brokerage firms are largely for the off-market deals because of the little competition since the secretive nature of the whisper listings allows other brokers to be shut out of a possible deal.
Why Whisper Listing May Not Be the Best
The seller can the get the most out his property by exposing it to the wider market and the off-market campaign can be a tall order. Because of the fewer buyers, brokers can end up doing hefty work for nothing. In these campaigns, the brokers don’t have signed contracts (pocket listing) but when there’s a contract, a quiet sale may be a mandate. Brokers don’t have a lot of freedom here, they must go with what the seller wants. Going offline limit opportunities for clients who want to choose one among the various homes for sale listed online.Sellers opting for this kind of marketing will limit the number of potential buyers willing to purchase their homes and miss a chance to sell at a higher price.
Benefits of Off-market Listing
Sellers who prefer off-market deals often set a certain target price to be met. Most under-radar deals can place the buyer at the beneficiary side. The silent market allows the buyer to avoid a possible cut-throat bidding. The new technology has fascinated off market deals. Some sites allow sellers to name prices which can compel them to sell. Off-market deals gives sellers a humble time, finding where they can relocate to. Such sellers prefer rolling it out quietly to avoid the pressure that would come if they were to list their property in the wider market.