During periods of a scorching hot real estate market in the Bay Area, finding an elusive, attractive, off-market or pocket listing was like hitting the lottery. Off-market listings are not on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) and are typically priced at “nice-to-have” prices and so you knew the price you needed to buy the property and you didn’t expect to be in a bidding war. While there might still be a bidding war, it typically wouldn’t go for much over and there were fewer bidders. In theory, a house sells for the highest price by having the largest number of people looking at the home, thus listing it on the MLS allowing everyone to see it. However, properties are typically sold off-market when the sellers:
- want to test the market at a high price prior to listing on the MLS,
- don’t want to advertise to all of the neighbors that the house is for sale,
- don’t want open houses or a large number of people in the house, or
- believe it might be difficult to sell and don’t want the Days on Market on the MLS accruing before they have had a chance to “soft-sell” it
Today, there are several sites for aggregating off-market properties and so off-market properties now resemble MLS-listed properties, except for usually with a higher price tag. Thus, truly off-market properties don’t really exist anymore.