Buying A Home That Is Not For Sale
The adorable home that caught your eye is not for sale. It’s not technically on the market, but that doesn’t mean you can’t at least try to buy it. The worst the owners can say is no, right? You can offer to buy a house that’s not for sale, but prepare yourself for rejection, or perhaps the owner asking for more than the estimated value of the home. But nothing’s stopping you from trying. Can you buy a home that is not for sale? It has happened to everyone at one time or another. You are driving through an area when you see a property, a perfect home, that you would love to live in. The only problem is, there is no for sale sign, no listing on MLS. Whoever lives in the home is not currently selling, and may have no plans to sell. So the question is, can you still attempt to buy the house?
Trying to buy a home that is not on the market is complicated, and there is no way to know how successful you will be. While the owner could be interested in selling, they could also be planning on keeping the home in the family for generations. You have to be careful and take the right steps to ensure that whatever chances you do have of purchasing the home are not dashed through missteps. One of the best ways of finding properties that are not currently for sale is to have your agent check the MLS. There are different property statuses in MLS besides what’s currently for sale. These include canceled, expired, withdrawn, and coming soon.
Canceled listings – a canceled listing is when a homeowner has taken their home off the market and canceled the real estate contract with their agent. There could be any number of reasons why this has happened. One potential reason is that the seller has fired the real estate agent. In that case, the home could be re-listed again in the near future with someone else.
Expired listings – an expired listing is a seller who has attempted to sell their property but has not had any success. The contract period between the real estate agent and seller have come to an end. Quite often expired listings end up as properties that come back on the market.
Withdrawn listings – a withdrawn listing is a home that has been taken off the market and out of the multiple listing service by the seller, but the real estate contract is still in full force and effect. With a withdrawn listing your buyer’s agent could contact the listing agent to see if there is any chance the owner still wants to sell.
Coming soon listings – in many areas of the country, the coming soon home for sale status is relatively new. With coming soon listings, the property will be coming on the market shortly. Different multiple listing boards have rules on how long it can be posted in MLS before it’s able to be viewed by prospective buyers
Another resource to try to find a home that is not for sale is friends and family. People love to talk about real estate. It is not uncommon at all for folks who are thinking about selling to let their neighbors, friends, and relatives know ahead of time.
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Have others do the work for you by keeping their ears to the ground. If there’s a property you want that’s not on the market, it doesn’t hurt to go after it. After all, you’ll never know if you never try. If you find a home in Palm Desert or any Palm Springs real estate that you think you'd like to try and purchase, give us a call - we have some great tips on buying a home that's not on the market.
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