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A leading real estate group has launched an exclusive portal for off-market listings following an increase in vendors looking to sell their homes discreetly.
While off-market listings were once thought to be for vendors looking to scrimp on advertising, Victoria’s hockingstuart says it is seeing increasing demand from a new type of seller.
“We have really seen an uptick in off-market listings,” said Stephanie Holmes, hockingstuart’s head of marketing and IT.
“It has really kicked in over the last year and a half. It does vary by location but it seems that on average between 5 and 10 per cent of listings are off-market,” Ms Holmes told REB.
“In Doncaster it’s up to about 20 per cent. It is no longer the vendor who wants to scrimp on advertising, it is now the vendor who doesn’t want it obvious that their property is for sale.”
The influx of VIP listings has led hockingstuart to launch an ‘off-market’ part of its website – essentially a section for those properties that aren’t to be advertised publicly.
“This concept came from our Balwyn office where they wanted some way to show their out-of-area buyers these properties,” Ms Holmes said.
The new off-market section of the hockingstuart website is password-protected, which has the added benefit of allowing the real estate group to strengthen its database.
“If a buyer or potential vendor wants to visit that section they need to fill out a form, so we capture their details. The office will get in contact with them to understand what they’re looking for and get them into the CRM system as well,” Ms Holmes said.
“So they become part of our database before they are given a password to view all the off-market listings,” she said.
“They are high-value, luxury properties. Sometimes the vendor is a celebrity or a very private, high-net-worth individual,” she said, adding that the group has seen a surge in wealthy Asian vendors looking to sell their homes discreetly over the last 12 months.
For agents, the success of the sales process rests almost exclusively on the strength of their contacts.
“There are no open for inspections, there are only private views,” Ms Holmes said. “There are no boards or brochures. It is more about having a network of buyers.”
The agency has been actively encouraging all of its sales agents to use their database and build their networks, which Ms Holmes said has so far been successful.
“We have a fantastic agent in Balwyn, Helen Yan, who would have a higher number of off-market sales than normal sales,” Ms Holmes said.
“She has these connections where someone will be looking for a particular type of house and she will find them that house, whether it’s on the market or not.”
[Related: Why styling a home is the key to selling it]
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