Last week I had clients close on an off market home in St Paul MN, so I wanted to take the opportunity to share what it really means to buy an off market home!
What is an off market home?
It’s a house that isn’t officially listed on the MLS (aka the market). The sellers could still be planning to list at some point and can have an agent. Off market also doesn’t necessarily mean For Sale By Owner.
How does a buyer find out about off market homes?
By having a real estate agent that is connected to other agents in the areas you’re looking! Or sometimes it can be as simple as knowing a neighbor or friend that is planning to list their home as well.
Why would anyone want to list their home off market?
It can make things much less stressful for all parties involved. It’s much less competition for the Buyer and can be much less stressful for the Seller. For example, perhaps the seller is selling the home on behalf of their parents that have since passed and they don’t want to deal with the rigamarole of listing a home, or maybe the seller has already purchased their next home and doesn’t want to do any work prior to selling. There are a bunch of factors that come into play!
In this case, I had a relationship with the listing agent and he asked me if I might have any clients interested in a home that he had coming to market in a few weeks, and that the seller would prefer to sell it off-market.
It was a win-win for everyone involved!