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Empower Wealth Blog post by Empower Wealth

Buying an Off Market Property

As Buyers Agents, we absolutely love a good off market opportunity. The key here is having a great network, as these kinds of property sales, while perhaps not having to deal with anywhere near as much competition, require strong property market understanding and negotiation skills if the buyer is to get a good deal.

When the market is humming along, the majority of agents either don’t want to, or don’t need to, deal with off market properties. They simply list a property schedule, set the auction date four weeks in advance and attach a reasonably fair quote. Then comes the long train of potential buyers attending each ‘open for inspection’, creating the competition on auction day so all they have to do is sit back to watch the price go well over the reserve.

The vendors have done well, but have they really? Have they paid too much? Could they have saved a small fortune by doing things differently?

This is when the idea of off market properties comes into play. There are a lot of reasons why a vendor or an agent would chose to opt out from the advertising campaign. It might be because the vendors would like a discreet sale, without letting the neighbours know. Or it might also be because they want a quick sale and hence decide to make full use of the vendor’s connections to secure a potential buyer. Another common reason for an off market is also that the vendors get to save on the advertising campaign. If the vendor is thinking about saving every penny they can, an off market with a good well-connected agent may just do the job.

For us, as buyers agents, any time a call is received from one of our trusted agents about an off market property, the FIRST thing we do is undertake research and homework to ensure that the price being offered is reasonable in comparison to past sales in that street. Although it is an off market property, it does not necessarily mean that the agent is putting the price down for a quick sale. It is our role as a Buyers Agent to make sure our clients are not paying too much simply for buying an off market property. We also look at comparable properties for sale in comparable suburbs, taking into account land size, the type of dwelling and condition. This research helps us to ascertain our opinion of what a fair price should be. We will often find out the terms around the sale or discover what could be used as leverage to help the vendor achieve a sale settlement date.

A great sense of satisfaction comes from a well communicated off market deal that has never been on the real estate websites that every other buyer is picking over. Basically, the process and negotiation strategy that we adopt for an off market property is similar to other properties but the difference is, buying an off market property would not be achievable if we didn’t build strong, long lasting, trusted relationships over time to benefit our clients.

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