Don’t Limit Your Home Search to the MLS

Northeast Florida Real Estate Tips for Buyers and Sellers by Chris Snow

Are you limiting your home search to only homes that are active on the MLS? There are other ways to find homes.
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Are you limiting your home search to only those active on the MLS?

When we’re working with buyers and we do our initial consultation with them, one of the first things we ask them is, “Are you only interested in homes that are active on the MLS?” Most of the time, they’re not quite sure what we’re asking that question for.

Today, I wanted to share with you the fact that about 20% of all home sales involve homes that have never hit the market. They bypass real estate agents, going straight from buyer to seller and from seller to buyer. We want to show buyers how we can give them access to those homes that aren’t necessarily listed on the MLS.

The question you have to ask yourself if you’re in the market to purchase a home is, “Am I only receiving active updates of properties that are active on the market right now?” The only way to know the answer is to contact the agent who has been sending you the listings and ask whether or not you’re being given access to off-market properties.

20% of all home sales involve homes that have never actually hit the market.

Here’s a quick story on how we were able to give someone access to a home that wasn’t active on the market. The buyer had been looking for months in a certain neighborhood, and nothing that they liked was popping up. They were waiting to see which homesellers were going to put their homes on the active market.

But we didn’t want to wait any longer—since they knew that that was the neighborhood that they wanted to be in, we started knocking on doors of about five or six houses that they’d be interested in purchasing, even though those homes weren’t on the market. We asked the current owner if they would be interested in selling their home to one of our buyers. This is a common service we perform for our buyers to make sure that they’re not limiting their search to just what’s active on the MLS.

If you’ve been looking for homes and are finding it hard to locate the right property, you may want to step back and assess whether or not you’re doing it the right way. Do you have someone helping you create some opportunities where inventory doesn’t exist?

We’d love to answer any questions for you and show you how our team helps people finding properties that aren't active on the market. Feel free to contact us via phone or email any time.