Property Search

Finding a home is simplistic with today’s technology. Any buyer can visit a number of public websites and seek out a new home. Most buyers don’t know that they are not seeing everything that is for sale and at the same time might be seeing properties online that are not for sale.

Properties for sale that might not be found online fit into the following categories:

1. Off market for sale

Properties that want to be discreetly marketed for a variety of reasons.

2. Recently unsold

Properties that still want to sell but are taking a breather from public visibility to reset their days on market.

3. Pocket Listings

These are properties that want to sell and are willing to for the right price but are not ready to go public. These properties usually need some work so they don’t want to be seen.

4. Difficult Sellers

The world is in no shortage of difficult people and when it comes to difficult real estate sellers, agents work hard to build rapport to gain their trust for the sake of selling their property.

Properties that you may think are for sale but are not for sale fit into the following categories:

1. Already Sold

Listings are not always up to date online. Sites that syndicate listings have a lag time in posting new data.

2. Not for sale yet or ever

There are a number of websites that list properties pre-market or pre-foreclosure. These may never come to market. Most of this data comes from lis pendens public records. These properties are ones that have fallen behind on payments to a debtor. This doesn’t mean they are for sale.

3. In contract or sale pending

These are properties that many sites will list as for sale but they cannot entertain another buyer because they are bound to a buyer by a formal contract.

The reality is that no matter how much data is online for the public most of it is not regulated. The real estate industry has been, and will continue to, heavily regulate agents. What this does for the public, among many other things, is keep the data available to real estate agents clean and up to date.

It doesn’t pay to buy a home without the help of a licensed real estate agent. After all, in most cases the buyer is not paying the commission to the agents on the transaction.