There is a certain allure to selling off-market, I am sure. No open homes, less tyre kickers and (the dream) less upfront expense to get your desired outcome. Not to mention the increased privacy of no-one knowing what you do with your property other than you and the buyer.
Those benefits (?) come with a trade off though and I was reminded yet again with a recent sale campaign the difference that is made by doing things properly, compared to leaving things to fate (or your agent’s current contact list).
Taking to market a property on the CBD fringe, this one was not particularly cheap (well north of $1M) and to be fair, wasn’t dressed for dancing on Saturday night, with plenty of love needed to bring it to its full potential (though I am sure it was a looker back in its day).
Previously on market in a quiet fashion, the property had seen the rare enquiry but the feedback the owner had received was that the price was the problem (among other things) holding it back.
Now, price often IS the problem but one thing I learned early in my career, is that to know whether you have the right price or the wrong price you need feedback. To get feedback, you need to be talking to people and funnily enough an unadvertised property doesn’t tend to attract too many people to talk to.
After a lot of discussion with the owners, we agreed on a campaign strategy, put a reasonable budget in place and went to market properly to determine whether it was in fact the price or just a case of not being found in the right places.
Wouldn’t you know, a week on market saw 6 offers submitted in quick succession, and a final price well in excess of not just previous interest, but the listed price as well. Buyers represented a wide range of locations and categories as well, from suburb locals through to southern based, end users to developers and builders.
This wasn’t necessarily the easiest path. There were upfront costs, a lot more prep work and a raft of inspections. But the outcome was well worth the output.
There can be times that selling a secret might be the path that you want or need to take – everyone’s circumstances are their own. But when it comes to getting the BEST price in the market (even one you might not have thought existed), then its worth the thought.