Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You will know you have a connected agent if they actually show you off market properties.

I would choose an agent at an established firm who attends their firm's weekly sales meetings.

Your agent should be calling all of the other agents who are heavy listers in the neighborhood you want and ask them if they have anything coming soon.

Despite what some on this board will say, who you work with really DOES matter.

P.S. You are not likely to find anything off market with a discount broker.

Well, yeah our agent isn’t showing us off market property. So we have to break agreement and try another one. Is there a faster way to find one which can show us

I think Compass is making a killing with Coming Soon properties. They seem to have most of the listings around my neighborhood. I think a good agent is the most important thing but I'm realizing now that if you don't have access to those Coming Soon listings, you are really at a disadvantage. So basically, you want to find an established agent who works with the agency that has most of the listings in your neighborhood.

If you drive through your tarhetvareas and see a POD or some similar storage device or white contractor vans, that house may. R going on market. Got two off matket houses for buyers this year because if these clues.

We bought last spring. Couldn't compete in bidding wars so we put out our own feelers for houses coming on the market. Had one friend in our target neighborhood who knew of a couple moving. Told our agent, she knocked on their door and arranged for us to go see it the week before it was going on the market. Same week we found out from a different friend of another house coming soon on a street we really, really wanted to live on. Told our agent and gave her the guy's contact info and she reached out to him immediately. That's the house we ended up buying pre-market.

Prior to those two pre-markets, we had found out about another house that wasn't really even getting ready for market but a friend knew the owners were military and moved away and had decided just to sell it instead of rent again. Had that house been closer to our price range, they were ready to work out a deal.

So, honestly, for us, it was about tellling everyone we knew in our target neighborhoods/streets that we were looking to buy and to keep us posted if they heard of anything.

If you don't know anyone, you can also look for neighborhood listservs, facebook pages, nextdoor sites, etc that you can browse to see if people mention that their house is coming soon.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what about this looks even better

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/2449-N-Lexington-St-22207/home/11228204

It's a pretty house, but it's right next to some sketchy commercial real estate that fronts to Lee highway.

Little Ambassador’s daycare is expensive and the 7-11 doesn’t have day workers hanging out. Hardly sketchy!

7-11 is always sketchy. Full stop.

I don't care for 7-11, but even I will concede that this one is not sketchy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what about this looks even better

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/2449-N-Lexington-St-22207/home/11228204

It's a pretty house, but it's right next to some sketchy commercial real estate that fronts to Lee highway.

Little Ambassador’s daycare is expensive and the 7-11 doesn’t have day workers hanging out. Hardly sketchy!

7-11 is always sketchy. Full stop.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what about this looks even better

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/2449-N-Lexington-St-22207/home/11228204

It's a pretty house, but it's right next to some sketchy commercial real estate that fronts to Lee highway.

Little Ambassador’s daycare is expensive and the 7-11 doesn’t have day workers hanging out. Hardly sketchy!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually think some of these pre market sales run afoul of fair housing rules. I know some sellers do it to control who they sell their homes to.

Off market or ore market sales are done to get a high price for the seller with the minimal prep work, and to get the buyers a lock without a bidding war.

Seems like sellers would be leaving a lot on the table by not letting market weigh on.

There is a chance, but if you know the market well and you get your target amount then it saves a bunch of hassle.

+1

Maybe. However, we put our house on the market last Friday, went out of town for the long weekend (school was out) and returned today to 5 offers. We picked the highest one , no contingencies and 30% cash down.

Not a hassle at all.

BTDT.

And more recently we got exactly what we wanted without having to stage our house or go away for the weekend. Educated buyers are ready to jump on great houses without the hassle of MLS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually think some of these pre market sales run afoul of fair housing rules. I know some sellers do it to control who they sell their homes to.

Off market or ore market sales are done to get a high price for the seller with the minimal prep work, and to get the buyers a lock without a bidding war.

Seems like sellers would be leaving a lot on the table by not letting market weigh on.

There is a chance, but if you know the market well and you get your target amount then it saves a bunch of hassle.

+1

Maybe. However, we put our house on the market last Friday, went out of town for the long weekend (school was out) and returned today to 5 offers. We picked the highest one , no contingencies and 30% cash down.

Not a hassle at all.

Anonymous wrote:
You're looking for a unicorn, OP. I think it's really more luck and coincidence than anything else. None of the agents we've used had any inside info.

This. We had many pre market offers. We declined all of them. Wanted and got a bidding war. Not every seller is interested in this.

We had our first "Amazon" unsolicited inquiry to our home in N Arlington. We have one of the few 7br homes and I guess this exec has a big family and has realtors blindly contacting any home in N Arlington with 7br.

Anonymous wrote:You will know you have a connected agent if they actually show you off market properties.

I would choose an agent at an established firm who attends their firm's weekly sales meetings.

Your agent should be calling all of the other agents who are heavy listers in the neighborhood you want and ask them if they have anything coming soon.

Despite what some on this board will say, who you work with really DOES matter.

P.S. You are not likely to find anything off market with a discount broker.

Well, yeah our agent isn’t showing us off market property. So we have to break agreement and try another one. Is there a faster way to find one which can show us

OP, I know of one house coming on the market very soon in N Arlington (there's a coming soon sign out front so this isn't like insider info, I just live nearby). The owners have had nearly 20 people begging to come take a look since the "coming soon" sign went up and they are still planning to put it on the market. Like others have said, unless it's a house that will sit for a long time or needs work, I don't think most N Arlington sellers feel like it's in their best interest to take a pre-market offer.

Does it have to be Taylor ES?

You will know you have a connected agent if they actually show you off market properties.

I would choose an agent at an established firm who attends their firm's weekly sales meetings.

Your agent should be calling all of the other agents who are heavy listers in the neighborhood you want and ask them if they have anything coming soon.

Despite what some on this board will say, who you work with really DOES matter.

P.S. You are not likely to find anything off market with a discount broker.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We sold our house in Mclean to someone who knocked on our door and asked. They offered quite a bit more than than we would have priced it at. So it was a win win.

+1

We get flyers/letters/calls all the time, it is very annoying. It worked out for you, so congrats.

We do too but I do t mind. It’s kind of flattering.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what about this looks even better

https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/2449-N-Lexington-St-22207/home/11228204

It's a pretty house, but it's right next to some sketchy commercial real estate that fronts to Lee highway.

It's actually right behind the new 7-11. When the house came on the market the first time in 2017, it was behind a run-down and soon-to-be-abandoned auto body shop that's now been torn down and completely rebuilt (whether you want to live next door to a 7-11 is a different story).

Depends...
If they permanently bring back Blackcherry Canada Dry Ginger Ale Slurpees?
Sure!

Being able to walk right next door when we run out of milk would be a selling point for me.