In December something changed in the real estate market, it is something that had been present for a while but in December it entered the extreme territory. If you have been searching for a home, you already know what it is. It is an unprecedented lack of available homes. When our local MLS released the end of December statistics we realized that the number of available homes had decreased by 54% over the previous year. This severe lack of inventory has left buyers frustrated and on edge trying to find a suitable home. This has also led to bidding wars that are pushing offers way over the asking price.
This lack of inventory is creating a ripple effect that may actually be the biggest part of the problem. There is a large pool of potential sellers who are not engaging in the market due to the fear of not finding the kind of home they desire to replace their current home. This trepidation is creating a backlog of buyers who are kept on the sidelines.
More: Find Your Dream Home Here
What many buyers don't realize is that there are actually way more homes available then what you see on zillow, realtor.com and other major home search websites. You just need access to the places where those homes are located. Want to know more? Continue.......
Coming Soon to MLS Listings- I am sure you have seen one of the signs, unless you have an infinite amount of available time you can't drive around looking for the signs you will need a better way. What you may not know is that there is a section in the MLS that only agents can access, it is called the Pre-MLS and it shows all of the Coming Soon Listings (currently 494 listings as of this writing) entered by agents and what day they will go active on the market. Wondering how buyers get to these homes so quickly, well now you know, they have been given advanced notice of when those new listings were going active.
Private Office Exclusive Listings- Last year the National Association of Realtors enacted a new policy to stop the practice of Pocket listings, these so called listings where the agent doesn't release the info to the public in hopes of selling the listing themselves. What the change in policy does allow is a private company listing. A seller may wish to sell their home but is not ready to list it to the open market, with a private office exclusive the seller can get feelers to what the market is for their home. That may potentially be waiting for a new construction home to be completed or may be wanting to move at a specific time or under specific terms. My office has over 500 agents and an extensive list of homes that are Private Exclusive Listings. You will not find these homes on any public websites and only an agent in my office can show you one of these homes. If you are searching for homes without an agent you have a 0% chance of ever seeing these homes.
Listings Not Supplied to Search Engines- Believe it or not the listing agent can choose not to place the sellers home on public facing websites. There are many reasons why an agent and (or) seller may choose not to have the home listed on all of the big search engines. The biggest reason is usually a seller that has expensive items in their home may not want it shown to the public due to privacy reasons. Your average Home Search Website only has 93% of all available home listed on their site, it your Dream Home one of the 7%?
Want in? Well you are going to have to hire a buyers agent, don't worry we don't bite and better yet our fee is usually paid by someone else.
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