Is it common for properties to skip the rightmove stage?

[DinDinDin]

Can’t find much on RM at the moment so I was hoping there is a whole market of properties that don’t make it to the website that we might get to see once we speak to an EA. Does it happen quite a lot or do most properties make it to RM?

When I sold my house in mid 2021 the EA mentioned they had a buyer who had just had a purchase on a similar property fall through, they arranged a viewing and I sold to them before it went on right move. The EA said they had to put the house on anyway as SSTC for legal reasons so I suppose you would still see those properties but they'd come up as sold straight away.

The key is demonstrate to agents that you are a serious, proceed-able buyer who has already SSTC. Then they may share brand new properties before they go on RM.

We've moved several times and were lucky to always sell when the agent pre-marketed to their select list of active buyers.

The houses didn't show up on RM until SSTC.

A lot of agents did come off there because of the ridiculous fees, however it’s still the most popular site, also look at On the Market and Zoopla some agents only use those sites.

One of our neighbours has just sold “off market”. EA came round, agreed the valuation, brought a few people to view and agreed the sale within a couple of weeks- no advertising, no photography, no haggling etc. Presumably the EA knew who they had on their books as proceedable and likely to be interested in this particular property so that was that.

Nearly everything for sale appears on Rightmove

Several estate agents that came to value mine talked about marketing to their mailing lists for 1-2 weeks before putting it on Rightmove. I went with an agent that pretty much immediately went on RM,, but still sold first weekend to mailing list people who'd received the details ahead of RM. I think there's nothing to lose by getting to know the agents and getting that day or two ahead.

my mum has sold off market and also bought off market. especially the top-end of the market where people value privacy is more likely to see off-market sales that never appear on the websites.

Where I am, estate agents do sneak previews on Facebook/Insta so people will call and book in before houses are even on the market. It's dog eat dog out there!

It really isn’t a buyers market at the moment ( apart from in a small number of areas) but EAs do what they can I guess to create a buzz when something new comes to market.

Vast majority of properties will still end up on Rightmove though.

Quite often for a long time after it has sold.

I think it is rubbish that agents legally have to put things up on RM as SSTC. They like to do this to drum up more sales and for their own kudos. I have sold previously completely off market, but though an agent, and nothing ever appeared as those were the terms I wanted.

Our purchase didn’t. The vendors hadn’t even told the neighbours (who have told us they wanted to buy it). We were the second viewers and offered 2 hours later. All under the radar. We had actually forgotten we were on the EAs list and had pretty much given up on finding a house.

Last time we sold, the details hadn’t even been approved. The drafts go sent to a mailing list. A day later we had three viewings and they all offered by the following work day. It was mad. We weren’t even 100% sure we wanted to move and had intended to use the time on the market to consider all our options but that made our minds up pretty quickly.

Wont have got on rightmove.

True

That was presumably in a much stronger market for Sellers though? The market is different now.

When we were looking ( 5 years ago ) we often got contacted by local ea’s about properties that were about to come on the market that maybe suited us. Gave us a chance to have a look before they appeared on the internet.

That was presumably in a much stronger market for Sellers though? The market is different now.
Now there seem to be even fewer good houses on, and lots of overpriced stuff that's hanging around. If the house is priced well, and is desirable, I reckon it'd still go before reaching Rightmove. Therefore, it's always worth contacting estate agents, whatever the market.

The house we bought never made it onto RM - the owner was a friend of the estate agent selling our house. Seller phoned him up on Sunday saying he wanted to sell, we viewed first thing Monday and offer accepted Tuesday. Estate agent knew we were proceedable as he'd sold our house and it was far less hassle all round. No RM listing at all.

Estate agent also has a preview Facebook group - some stuff gets sold from there before it goes on RM.

I find properties on Prime Location that never appear on Rightmove!

I use Prime Location now as they are more up to date/accurate with the locations that I like to look at.

We sold off market in 2022 (the agent knew a couple who were looking for exactly what we were selling) and bought off market at the same time (agent knew what we were looking for and gave us a heads up before it went on the market). I know of loads of houses round here that have sold off market.

Last summer a friend told me that her friend was moving to our street which surprised me as nothing had been on Rightmove and nor had there been any signs up. A few days later, a neighbour invited us to their leaving party as they had sold and were moving.
The neighbour had gone for lunch with a group of friends, mentioned they were thinking of moving, one of the other people at the lunch has a sister who is an estate agent and had a list of people she knew would be interested and there were three viewings the next day. The viewings were before the asking price had even been set!

It happened a lot when we had a crazy sellers market two or three years ago. I sold a property before it ever appeared on Right Move.

I noticed then that properties tended to appear on the estate agent’s website first, then on On The Market and finally, (a day after appearing on OTM) on Right Move. But I don’t know if that’s still the case. It was a crazy time - most estate agents stopped bothering to give a heads up to their hot lists of proceedable buyers and buyers had to chase them and practically beg them to take their six figure sums of money.

Zoopla is way cheaper for agents to advertise on than RightMove. I always look there first.

My mum's house didn't make it onto RM as they already had an interested party for that area. They viewed and offered so it didn't need to be fully marketed.

I think a lot depends where you are. When we sold recently it never made it to Rightmove, or even getting photos today, as the EA had four people they knew would want it. So they all had viewings and put in offers.

Our old neighbour had the same when they sold before Christmas.