What are the benefits and drawbacks of listing a home off-market?

A: Modern technology has made it easier than ever to market a home. It’s also made it more difficult to be discreet if one does not desire the entire world to learn about the sale. In certain circumstances, a home seller may not want a front page splash with 100 percent market saturation.

High-profile sellers such as celebrities, professional athletes, government officials, or business executives may draw more curious fans rather than qualified home buyers. Other reasons could be as simple as not wanting to have an awkward holiday dinner because the entire family knows how much the home is on the market for. Divorce, relocation or a change of career can also trigger a client’s need to take a less public approach to selling a home. The reasons why a seller may choose an off-market strategy are abundant.

While the MLS is a wonderful marketing tool for Realtors, in these scenarios, it has its drawbacks. All the major home shopping websites and apps pull their data from the MLS and then push its content out worldwide.

For a less public and more elegant approach to selling, agents may promote off-market listing using exclusive online agent networks, print ads in hyper-specific publications, brokerage community boards or ad targeting to brokerages and agents that are predisposed to have a qualified buyer.

This more surgical approach to targeting may take more time, energy and bandwidth on the agent’s behalf to obtain the desired market reach. At the end of the day, this high-level decision is the seller’s choice. How the off-market sale will be approached must be uniquely tailored to best fit the individual client’s needs.

1809 Gough Street- Shawn Kunkler represented the buyers