There’s a bit of buzz at the moment around off-market property sales, which is basically when a real estate agency sells your property directly to their own database / pre-approved buyer contacts without officially marketing the property through the usual channels.
Should you sell your home off-market? We’ve put together some pros and cons of selling your home off-market.
Off Market - Pros
- Save money – Off-market property sales can be a more affordable option for people who don’t want to pay marketing costs to sell their property. We would access our buyer database and invite them to an exclusive off-market inspection opportunity.
- Settlement flexibility – With an off-market sale, you can generally be more flexible with settlements and buyers are more receptive to any unique settlement terms / periods you may have. This can give you the opportunity to request a longer settlement or set specific terms and conditions of sale if required.
- Property can be less polished – The owner of the property doesn’t have to get the property prepared for sale as they may have to do normally.
- Seller has upper hand – in an off-market sale, generally the seller has an upper hand as they aren’t necessarily committed to selling.
- Buyer exclusivity – An off-market opportunity can feel very exclusive and create some competition between buyers as they may feel urgency to put their best offer forward in case the property does get taken to the market.
On Market - Pros
- Reach more potential buyers – we have an amazing buyer database for off-market sales but there are new buyers entering the market all the time. Therefore, an on market sale may give you access to more potential buyers.
- Open home competition – the psychological impact of open homes with potential buyers seeing the other interested parties can create a feeling of competition and FOMO (Fear of missing out).
- Shows the seller is committed – When a property goes to market there has been considerable effort and some financial contribution by the seller in order to get to that point. This indicates that the seller is committed and ready to sell their property and aren’t just testing the market.
- Auctions – with on market properties, we can conduct an auction which acts as a deadline for prospective buyers. This speeds the selling process up
The right real estate agent will chat through your options and advise you on their recommendation that will best suit your individual situation. With off market property there is a risk that not every buyer will know your property is for sale so you do need to seek out a well-connected agent with their finger firmly placed on the local market. We recommend you look for an agent that is already talking to the majority of the buyers in the current market in your local area.
If you’d like to chat more about selling your property on or off market on the Gold Coast, feel free to get in touch.
