Using 'Off Market' Tactics to Find Hidden Housing Inventory

In today’s hotter-than-normal real estate market, a great real estate agent deploys ‘off market’ strategies to help find the perfect home for their clients.

A few years ago, a client of ours wanted to live on Main Street, Unionville, a coveted area where, at the time, there wasn’t anything for sale.  We asked her to make a list of the homes that she was interested in and then we went to work using some ‘outside the box’ creative approaches to find an interested seller. As it turned out, we found a motivated seller and she and her family moved into their dream home a couple of months later.

Today, selling a house isn’t difficult but buying a house or condo is and most people won’t list their house until they find their next home.  With a shortage of listings on the market, it’s important to offer our buyer clients exclusive properties that are not yet available on the MLS.  We call this ‘off market' inventory and it’s out there…it just takes some digging and more effort to find it, which most agents simply won’t bother doing.

For example, if our client wanted to buy a house in an exclusive community, one technique we would use is to send a direct mail letter to every home in the neighbourhood advertising the buyer we have to each homeowner there.  We would promote that our buyer client is prequalified for a mortgage, is willing to pay full market value, that they’re flexible with the closing date and working with an agent from The Procenko Group, so if the seller wants a fast sale for top dollar, without the hassle of listing their home for sale, they should contact us. Of 1,000 houses, we expect three or four sellers would get back to us.

This technique also avoids our buyer having to compete in a bidding war and possibly over-paying for a home.

A great real estate agent deploys strategy in tandem with the conditions of the market, and today that means going off market. 

Right now, there are a very limited supply of homes on the market, so applying ‘off-market’ strategies where possible is working really well.  The No.1 thing real estate agents need to get right is their offer.  Are they making an offer that matches what buyers and sellers really want in today’s market? 

We give buyers and sellers what they really want instead of what most agents think they want.

If you think finding the right home, in the right location, at the right price is a pipe dream, give us a call.  Having us find a home on your behalf is a free service to you and it would be an honour and a privilege to help make your home-buying dream come true.