Off-market property sales are becoming more popular as awareness builds and success stories come to light. One of our clients recently sold their Central Coast property through an off-market sales process with local real estate agent Cathy Baker of Belle Property Killcare & Wamberal.
So, what exactly is an off-market sale?
An ‘off-market’ sales approach means the property isn’t advertised via the conventional methods such as online listings, signboards, newspaper or social media. It is a discrete way to sell your home without all the neighbours knowing or conducting ongoing open inspections. As the property isn’t openly advertised as being for sale, the real estate agent uses their relationships with their buyers and communicates via a newsletter, emails, phone calls to generate interest.
Why are off-market sales becoming more popular?
For vendors, it’s all about discretion, minimising your advertising costs and speed of sale. This is where the real estate agent really earns their money, as it’s all down to their relationships with the buyers. Knowing which buyer is ready to buy and matching the property to the buyer is key to a successful transaction.
For buyers, and we mean serious buyers, this is where you get a chance to secure a property without having to battle the hordes or go through the emotions of an auction. Buyers need to be ready to purchase though, have finance ready as a good agent won’t let tyre kickers through the door of an off-market property.
“Buyers need to be ready to purchase though, have finance ready as a good agent won’t let tyre kickers through the door of an off-market property.”
Do all agents offer off-market properties?
No, you’ll need to speak to each agent in your preferred location to see if they offer off-market properties to their buyers. Our client sold their property through Belle Property Killcare & Wamberal as they have exclusive property alerts through their Belle Property Private system. As our client had experienced the buying process with Belle previously, they knew how they looked after buyers.
How selling off-market achieved a street record sale price for these vendors
Our client had already purchased a property, and were considering selling their existing home or renting it out as an investment. As they were happy to either sell or rent out their property, they didn’t want to go through the traditional 6 weeks sales campaign, so they engaged Belle Property Killcare and Wamberal to list the property off-market.
Our client had to arrange the Contract of Sale to be prepared and also photos needed to be taken of the property. Some of the property styling was included as part of Belle Property’s fees, saving our client a lot of money. You can see by the photos that it makes a massive difference to the appeal of the property.
Once the photographs were taken, a private webpage was set up by Belle Property to ensure the property could only be accessed by those with a direct link. They promoted the property to their existing database and hit the phones to contact all their serious buyers who they thought the property would appeal to.
After the photos were taken on the Friday, the agent arranged for a private viewing for their clients on the Sunday. On the Tuesday another buyer inspected the property and made an offer on the spot.
Mindful that the property hadn’t even hit the open market, the buyers knew their offer had to be strong to take it off the market. With careful negotiation, the vendors accepted an offer almost $100,000 above their original price expectation.
The sale price was a street record for a non-waterfront property. The buyers were so happy as they had been looking to purchase on the Central Coast for over a year, and our client’s property was just perfect for them.
Who to contact?
If off-market appeals to you, you can sign up to exclusive property alerts with Belle Property Private or contact Cathy Baker at Belle Property Killcare & Wamberal.
Always remember to get your finance pre-approval in place so you can move quickly when you find that perfect property. Talk to trusted Central Coast Mortgage Broker, Zac Peteh at Mint Equity to get your finance in order.
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