Blog Stories When Selling a house off-market makes sense

When Selling a house off-market makes sense

By Alyssa Isenstein Krueger, August 31, 2018

As the market cools considerably and brings with it great relief for buyers, for sellers who have been watching the market, the opposite is true. While the balancing out of the market is a good thing overall, the stress of not knowing how long it will take to sell your home and for owner occupied sellers, the stress of always feeling like you live in a museum can be rough. One year ago I would not have advised a seller to sell a home off-market without listing it on RMLS, but in this new reality, for some sellers, this can be the least stressful and most fruitful path to follow.

In May of 2015, I sold the very last home I’ve sold under $200,000 to some wonderful and eager first time homebuyers. The 3 bedroom 1 bath ranch home is close to Ventura Park and is as solid as a rock. After my buyers purchased it, they went about updating it and removing all the carpet, re-doing all the original hardwood floors, and painting it and taking it up 9 notches on the sweet and cute scale. In June of this year, my buyers contacted me to let me know that they were divorcing and going their separate ways, and that they had decided to sell the sweet little house. Fortunately because they are both swell human beings, they have stayed amicable and when it came time to go over all of the details and listing information, they were both very much on the same page. For both of them, they felt that they were struggling first time home buyers when they purchased it, and their sellers had accepted their offer over an investors offer, and now that the time had come to sell, they both felt strongly about selling to a person who would live in the house, and not an investor who would purchase it as a rental.

Because they had done so much work on the house over the past few years, the to-do list for getting it ready for the market was pretty small. Since they had split, the extra bedrooms had been rented out to roommates, so there were a lot of discussions on how showings would work, when we could list, and other considerations that need to be taken into account when there are renters living in the home. They decided the best time to list would be late July or early August. About a week after we went over all the paperwork and came up with the game plan for getting the house on the market, I got a call from my cousin who happens to be a broker at another firm, asking if I would be willing to take a referral from her as this buyer was looking on the east side where I work and live. After discussing this buyer’s wants and needs, it struck me that this house I was going to list might be perfect for this buyer.

I sent the old listing to my cousin who shared it with her buyer, the buyer loved it and couldn’t believe that if she wanted it, and was willing to pay list price, my sellers would sell to her and not list it on RMLS. I went over the proposal with my sellers, and both of them were totally on board and felt like if this could work out, it would make everything so much easier and smoother for them. A few days later and I met the buyer at the house to show her, and it was as perfect for her as she had hoped. So rather than taking a referral from my cousin, I found her buyer a house.

Because the market is cooling, there were roommates to consider and the circumstances of the sale weren’t exactly the happiest, my sellers agreed that selling it to this buyer (who was a real buyer who would live in the house!) felt like it was the way to go. We did a long transaction to give my seller and his roommates time to find new housing situations, and nearly 8 weeks later, the sale closed and everyone is happy. While selling off market isn’t the best choice for every seller, in this situation it made total sense and with an excited buyer in hand who was willing to pay the price my sellers were planning on listing it at and gave my sellers the timeline they needed, all the pieces fell into perfect place. Given what the market did over the last three years with so much appreciation, along with all of the sweat equity they put into the house, both of my sellers are walking away with tidy nest eggs and a wonderful buyer who had struggled to find a house she loved in her price range gets to move into this great house.

Alyssa Isenstein Krueger

Broker | OR

She/Her

I am living the dream. Working as a real estate broker in my home town brings this native Portland gal joy beyond measure. Check Out My Reviews! I took the round-about-road towards this career...
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