In recent times, trends have shown that more and more property transactions are going “off the market”. What was once solely reserved for celebrities, high net worth individuals and professional property investors, the off-market approach has now become a popular way for buyers to search for hidden gems not on traditional property portals like Rightmove or Zoopla.
In this blog, we will look at what off-market means, the benefits of off-market for buyers, and how Mutual’s platform can help buyers find their dream home before anyone else.
What does off-market mean?
Finding your ideal home can be a long and arduous process. Hours spent scrolling through property portals, opening tab after tab, but never finding quite what you’re looking for.
Instead of searching for a home on traditional property portals like Rightmove or Zoopla, buyers can instead opt to go off-market to search for properties that are for sale but aren’t listed on multiple listing services.
Sellers will typically list with off-market portals like Mutual to test the waters for buyer interest ahead of instructing an agent. So, for savvy buyers, searching off-market can open up a lesser-known inventory of properties, possibly avoiding competition in a “hot” market.
Put simply, off-market gives smarter buyers and keen-eyed property investors a good opportunity to find what they are looking for.
What are the benefits of off-market for buyers?
Generally speaking, a buyer actively searching for a property may get advised of particular properties on the agent’s database ahead of marketing on traditional search portals, but this doesn’t always happen.
Estate agents manage huge lists of buyers, so it’s easy to be overlooked during your search because an agent will need to know a number of up-to-the-minute particulars for you to be considered in advance of a listing.
Recently, the end of the stamp duty holiday has changed the market for buyers, driving up asking prices. Viewings came to a halt with the onset of the pandemic, which has tempered a huge amount of viewings. As such, competing with so many people for a historically low inventory of housing stock has made it a tough time for buyers.
To counteract these adverse market conditions, Mutual offers a level playing field of opportunity for buyers. Once a property has gone from pre-market to off-market, all buyers who have superliked a property on the Mutual platform will be foremost in the minds of the seller or estate agent and will be contacted as and when that property moves further along in the selling process.
How does Mutual help buyers?
Fundamentally, it is the control of the buyer experience that makes Mutual, and off-market properties in general, such an enticing prospect. Taking back control of the buyer experience, registering interest on one’s own terms, will give a buyer much more flexibility when searching and registering interest for a property.
So, all that said, if a buyer is searching for a property in a hot market, going off-market might be the best way to find a home before others do.
It is recommended that a buyer maintains their off-market activity throughout the duration of their property search, regularly checking Mutual, updating search criteria in order to be considered for new off-market listings.