Boston Condos for Sale and Apartments for Rent
How Boston condo buyers can purchase off-market listings
According to the latest National Association of Realtors most recent data, more than 5.6 million homes were sold in one year alone, and this number has only continued to grow over the years. If you’re looking to buy a downtown Boston condominium, you might be considering off-market listings. After all, off-market properties have far less competition than regular properties for sale.
But how can you find them? More than that, how difficult is it to find them and buy them? What should you consider when buying off-market homes?
In this Boston Real Estate Blog post I’ll go over the tips I’ve learned in over 20 years in the business. Keep reading and learn more about the details below.
What are the benefits of buying off-market Boston condos?
There are many benefits to buying off-market Boston properties. The first benefit is that there is less competition compared to regular condominium listings. You won’t have to get into a bidding war with other potential buyers.
You also won’t need to worry about finding a nice property only for it to be snatched from you by another buyer because you weren’t quick enough. Of course, this doesn’t mean that there isn’t any competition when buying off-market condominiums; there is simply a lot less.
What is the first tip in buying off-market Boston condos?
It can be difficult to find off-market listings if you don’t know where to start. The best place to start is often to talk to real estate agents or brokers. Real estate agents tend to know all about off-market properties.
This is because they know all about the buyers and sellers in your desired Boston neighborhood. More than that, real estate agents might know some homeowners who were thinking about selling their condo. That way, you’ll be the first to find out.
In particular, real estate agents are experts at pocket listings. If you don’t know what a pocket listing is, it is when only a specific real estate agent has the right to sell a particular person’s home, looked down upon in the Boston condo market, but lets face it happens. For that reason, a pocket listing showing will not show up on national real estate sites like Zillow.
Tip number two try various local real estate websites
You might not find off-market listings on websites like Zillow, but this is not quite the case for local Boston condo sites. When a Boston condo goes up for sale, the listing first appears on the MLS and then it spreads to other websites that list properties. As such, the listing becomes available to the public like every other average listing.
However, there are some cases in which you can find listings online before they’re listed on the MLS. You might even be able to find listings that aren’t on the MLS at all. For example, you will occasionally find Boston condo for sale on websites that states its coming soon.
If you have the patience, you will eventually stumble across some Boston condo for sale listings this way. If you do, you will find that there will be very little competition to speak of. You might even be able to negotiate the price with the seller and you could end up with a great deal.
Of course, buying a Boston condo this way can be a little risky if you don’t do your research, so it is always best to be careful and know what you’re getting into.
Tip number three sign up on an auto sender notification from your broker
However you do it, if you get a notification that a new property has been listed that matches what you’re looking for, you’ll be able to be one of the first people to see it. As long as you’re fast, there will be little to no competition and you might be able to snag the home before anyone else does.
Of course, it is important not to act too fast as you still need time to do research on the price, the type of property it is, and so on.
Boston condos for sale and the bottom line
Pocket listings are usually quite secretive and only the real estate agent, the seller, and a few others will know about the listing. However, not just any potential homebuyer will be able to access such listings. This is especially true if you go to a real estate agent that doesn’t know you very well.
After all, why should a real estate agent show you exclusive listings if the agent doesn’t know much about you or whether or not you’re serious about buying a Boston condo for sale? While finding off-market properties from real estate agents is not necessarily an easy task, it is certainly one of the more feasible options.
