Selling Off Market

BobbyeinArkansas · 2022-03-19T18:10:47+00:00

I had my house valued yesterday by 3 agents. Aside from the fact that they all gave me a valuation of 12-15% above where I thought it would be, they all suggested I test the water off market and that everyone is doing it. Can anyone think of any downside to doing it? The main one I can think of is that we might not get the critical mass of people through the door. On the other hand, wrt "on market" there's nothing worse than putting your house on the market, no buyers coming in the door and having to reduce. In this crazy market, people assume that there must be something wrong with your house. Any thoughts?

Whinge · 19/03/2022 18:17

What do they mean by off market? Do they mean not listing it online, for example rightmove, zoopla, on the market?

If so then I think that would be a huge mistake. That's where 99.9% of your potential buyers are going to look, and excluding those will have a huge impact on how many people see your house and what price you're able to sell for.

Frostylaudanum · 19/03/2022 19:26

I don't know what that means.
I arranged to sell mine and the estate agent brought someone to view before he'd had a chance to take photos or put it online. I accepted an offer the next day.

TatianaBis · 19/03/2022 19:38

There aren't really downsides - if you get an amazing cash offer you can take it without the hassle of listing, if you're not you can still go to market.

mooonbaby · 19/03/2022 19:58

I sold (STC) my house off market. The sale all fell through eventually (nothing to do with selling it off market) so we put it on the market and sold it for £20k more.

If I were you I would allow people to view off market, let them make their offers and say you will consider these offers but say you would also like to put your house on the market to see what you could get. With the way the market still is I expect you’ll get more when it’s on the market because buyers will likely offer more when they know there’s competition. When it’s off market there’s no competition so they can low ball you. However if it doesn’t sell on the market you still have the off market offers

mooonbaby · 19/03/2022 20:00

Also estate agents like to push selling off market because they get away without paying the associated Zoopla / Rightmove fees and is also good advertising for them to say it sold off market. I don’t see any benefits of it to the seller tbh because you have to get your house ready for viewings regardless of whether it’s on or off market, and you’re more likely to get more for it on market

TabithaHazel · 19/03/2022 20:18

@Whinge

What do they mean by off market? Do they mean not listing it online, for example rightmove, zoopla, on the market?

If so then I think that would be a huge mistake. That's where 99.9% of your potential buyers are going to look, and excluding those will have a huge impact on how many people see your house and what price you're able to sell for.

I disagree I think if they can get you the price they have valued at off market why go through the hassle of viewings/open days etc. And if they don't then you can go live on Rightmove etc. Might as well give it a go.

TatianaBis · 19/03/2022 20:21

and you’re more likely to get more for it on market

Not necessarily the case. If an off market buyer really wants the property their price needs to be sufficiently high to persuade the OP not to list. She has nothing to lose by listing if she doesn't like the price so she can tell her buyer make it worth my while.

She's going to have to get her house ready anyway, so there's no harm in showing off market first and see where the offers come in.

RidingMyBike · 19/03/2022 20:24

Do they mean just letting some people view it who are on their books before it goes online and is officially advertised? We did this and it was a good way of testing the water with the price - we got 7 viewings from that and feedback from it indicating the price was a little high for what it was. If someone had offered it would have meant a very quick sale, but we didn't get an offer but did get useful feedback.
We also did this as potential buyers a few weeks ago - happened to contact an estate agent to see what was on their books and they had one that a developer was just finishing off. We viewed, it wasn't quite what we wanted and we gave them helpful feedback.

Vikingmama79 · 19/03/2022 21:29

We did this, got it all ready for agent to list as usual but had open day for people on agents books first, think they lined up around 9/10 and we had at least 3 over offers so accepted one. It might have gone for more still if we progressed to RM etc but we ended up with a lovely, patient straight forward buyer which was worth it’s weight in gold especially when our vendor was less so. Definitely worth a shot and if you don’t get an offer you are happy with nothing stopping you going to market thereafter. Good luck .

bumbl3 · 19/03/2022 21:37

When we were selling, local agents explained it was better to test the waters first off market with a higher price. You receive feedback on the price - either by getting your offer, or by buyers telling you it's too expensive - which then guides your next step. It seems standard practice for some agents. I don't see the harm.

Newnamefor2022 · 19/03/2022 22:07

We sold off market. The agent (who we had used before and think is OK) valued it a fair chunk higher than we expected. They had clients waiting for a house like ours and we had a mini open day with 4 or 5 sets of people. We sold immediately for asking price and couldn't have had better buyers. We were happy with the outcome.

ukborn · 19/03/2022 22:23

If the agent has genuine buyers in mind and can get you higher than expected why not? I normally associate off market sales with high value houses and/or sellers who want to protect their privacy.
I would try off market for a very limited time though.

Original poster

BobbyeinArkansas · 20/03/2022 18:34

Thanks all, funnily enough all the agents said they'd recommending testing the water off market.
Their rationale was, to those that asked, the price isn't up for downward negotiation because if no one offers the off market price, then I simply go to market.
Apparently lots of properties are selling off market and 70% are going to best and final offers.

OP posts:

Candlecassie · 21/03/2022 07:40

@mooonbaby

Also estate agents like to push selling off market because they get away without paying the associated Zoopla / Rightmove fees and is also good advertising for them to say it sold off market. I don’t see any benefits of it to the seller tbh because you have to get your house ready for viewings regardless of whether it’s on or off market, and you’re more likely to get more for it on market

You pay advertising portals per month, not per property so they need property on the market to cover costs. The costs to advertise, particularly on Rightmove are massive.

The last place I worked at cost £1700 a month and that was for a small, rural office. I can only imagine what the big agencies are charged. You are also charged per office, not per firm.

Doubleraspberry · 21/03/2022 09:53

We did it and got no offers but did mean we reduced our price before putting it online. I don’t think you lose anything even if, like for us, it doesn’t sell the house.

Shattered04 · 21/03/2022 21:23

We had our asking price offer accepted on an off market one recently, in a similar way to what you're describing. Was genuinely surprised, as I would have thought most people would have been pleased to see the interest (three viewers, we were the only ones who offered) and either negotiated for a higher value, or taken it to market properly. Photos and stuff hadn't even been taken.

Now we're wondering if there's something wrong with the place that we aren't aware of but it seems perfect on paper, and I've not dug up anything with Internet searches e.g. local plans etc! Could be the neighbours, but seems unlikely. It could just be somebody was happy with a nice, uncomplicated sale and wasn't in it for maximum cash as they were downsizing!

Interestingly we sold (well, accepted an offer) off market unintentionally with a mini bidding war, but we'd already been listed with not much interest with a previous utterly useless agent, and had only come off the market for a break over Christmas.

Guess off market activity does happen a lot!

Frostylaudanum · 22/03/2022 06:20

The benefit for me was minimising stress. Only one viewing, no need for photographs and was under offer the following day so a quick sale.

Ilostit · 22/03/2022 06:26

Personally it’s prob because they have a buyer waiting. It’s more control for them too if the buyer is selling through them. Helps the agent win all the on-going business.

Personally I would go on market and have an open day. Then best and final.

Gilesmummy · 02/04/2022 22:16

If you do go for off market are the agents fees less? They are doing virtually no work....I’m about to list a house that won’t be quick to sell.. beautiful house but one of the more expensive in our area..

user3837313202 · 02/04/2022 23:45

I've seen houses sold "off market" on social media to the agency's followers. This is of course preferable for the agents as
a) it's expensive to list on Rightmove / Zoopla
b) they get the willy-waving boasting rights about having sold 'off market'
Neither of these benefit the vendor.

If I were selling I'd want to go on the market, then go to best and final offers. As with all competitive processes, the more bidders you have the more likely you are to get a really good offer.

While it seems unlikely in your case as all agents are giving about the same price, be wary of outliers. There's one agent locally that seems to give excessive valuations (e.g. 30% more) to get the commission, then they see if anyone bites, and if not they reduce. It's basically a Dutch auction with them, but the result is I've seen properties take 6 months to sell even in a red hot market.