Securing a promising property before it hits the market comes down to building a great relationship with selling agents.
If you know what you want and are willing to offer a strong price, unlisted properties can be a quick and easy ticket to great home buying and opportunities. However, there is a lot of ground work to be laid beforehand, and only buyers who are serious about finding these properties will make any headway with the selling agents.
Types of Off-Market Sellers
Most seller’s agents who approach their networks and databases with off-market properties are working for one of these types of owners:
- Genuine sellers who want to offload their properties quickly with a short settlement period,
- Owners who may wish to avoid home opens and many people traipsing through their home,
- Sellers starting off-market for a variety of reasons, while expecting to go to open market soon,
- Owners with unrealistic prices, a problem property or are just feeling the market in case they can get a higher-than-expected offer.
Let’s have a look at how to avoid time-wasting and how to get in with the good opportunities.
Off-Market Sales to Avoid
It takes experience to not waste time on the last category and these sellers form a big part of the off-market segment. Tips to weed out these properties:
- The selling agent can’t tell you much or show you photos and pushes you to view. This may be a problem property and you only find out the problem when you get there,
- The price is really high compared with similar properties recently sold. This could be one of the unrealistic sellers,
- The selling agent can’t advise a price range but says the seller will sell for the right offer.
If you encounter any of these off-market sellers – find out more before you waste your time.
Serious Off-Market Sellers
Real estate agents assist their genuine off-market sellers in expediting the sale process by taking the property to their networks. These agents have built up networks of home buyers they know are ready to buy the right home, and investors who are buying regularly. The seller’s agent is looking to approach buyers who will make it worth the agent’s time.
How to Succeed with Off-Market Purchases
To be successful in purchasing a property that’s off-market or yet-to-be-listed on the open market, you need to have a very clear idea of what you want and what you can afford. You need to be able to give a quick answer to the agent, and you need to be willing to offer a fair price. If there are several potential buyers, your offer must be strong enough to beat the others, whilst not overpaying.
A good real estate agent is working in the interests of the seller, and will not wait around for you to make up your mind, especially if the seller is in a hurry. Building a relationship with the real estate agent before they have even received the authority to list a property is critical, as they need to know you are serious.
Many of our clients come to us as they know we have had the time and experience in building and maintaining these relationships with seller’s agents all across Perth’s market. Similarly, many selling agents will work to build these networks with local buyer’s agents so as to benefit from access to a database of pre-qualified, serious buyers.
Getting Started
If you’d like to learn more about home buying or property investment in Perth or clarify your buying strategy and goals, feel free to call us on (08) 9381-7450 or fill in this no-obligation Getting Started form to get the ball rolling.
If you’d like to learn more about property investment strategies, or you’d like to clarify your own strategy and goals, why not request our 4 Strategies Download to get the ball rolling.
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Established in 2004, Property Wizards works with local, interstate and overseas home and investment buyers seeking to buy property in the greater Perth metropolitan area.
Property Wizards takes away the stress of buying property and saves you time and money. Regardless of market conditions, our research, knowledge, and access to silent sales means we find and negotiate properties with potential to outperform the market in capital growth and rental returns. Importantly, we provide home buyers and property investors with the same level of representation that property sellers have benefited from for years.
