In the current market, where house prices are either stabilising or falling across the country, real estate agents are turning to ‘off-market’ strategies to help their vendors sell their properties.
Liane Fletcher, Co-Founder of Property Whispers says “Listing a property ‘off-market’ during this unprecedented time is a safe, far less expensive sales approach for vendors who are uncertain whether their property will sell. Many don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on upfront marketing right now if their price won’t be met.”
An ‘off-market’ campaign is one where the property is not publicly advertised but is offered to qualified buyers whose property requirements match the property’s specifications. Those buyers can be sourced from agent databases or a platform like Property Whispers, Australia’s first instant ‘match-making’ platform.
The concern with publicly advertising a property in an uncertain market is, if it fails to sell then an ‘online footprint’ (history) is left online which, if a vendor decides to sell later on, new buyers looking at the property date start to question what was wrong with the property as it didn’t sell previously, and they feel they can make reduced offers.
Liane says “Selling ‘off-market’ does not remove competition from the sales process as there will usually be a number of qualified buyers interested in the same property and therefore they will compete with each other. Real estate agents are very good at creating that competition in an ‘off-market’ scenario”.
With the forced lockdown in Victoria and weekly ‘open homes’ cancelled, agents are moving to an ‘off-market’ approach and using their own database as well as Property Whispers, being the perfect platform to source new buyers as Property Whispers has new buyers registering every day.
Liane says “In the last 3 months we’ve had a 106% increase in new buyers registering compared with the same period last year. Many buyers are using Property Whispers as they know it’s a platform to find properties for sale, particularly those that are being sold ‘off-market’ as well as those being publicly advertised. Buyers want to know of those ‘quiet’ listings that make up currently up to 50% of the properties being sold. Instead of endless browsing on the major advertising portals, buyers simply register their details on Property Whispers and list their property requirements to be instantly matched with suitable properties for sale”.
Agents are using Property Whispers as a new tool to help sell properties and right now it’s completely free for them to use.
“Unlike other property platforms, we don’t charge commission on a successful sale and have no plans to do so” says Liane.
In the last 3 months, June – August 2020, there has been a 165% increase in ‘off-market’ properties listed on Property Whispers across the price range spectrum. No longer is it just for the ‘high end’ properties; Property Whispers is helping every day Aussies are find their dream homes!
Real estate agent Ian Dempsey, Ray White Preston says “Property Whispers is an extremely valuable tool I’m using. I’ve just received an offer from one of the matched buyers from Property Whispers which is fantastic! Since lockdown, I’ve uploaded all my properties and have had over 400 matches! It’s keeping myself and my assistant busy getting in touch with everyone. I’m not the most tech savvy person but it’s very simple to use. It’s a no brainer - right now there is no reason not to use it as it adds another pool of buyers to every property. The buyers that are coming through this portal are matched to the particular properties based on their search criteria which is a very warm first call.”
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Property Whispers launched in 2017 as the world’s first 'Off-Market' property sales platform, instantly matching buyers and their property requirements with all suitable off-market properties in their chosen area. It has since expanded to cover advertised properties as well. Property Whispers works like a 'dating website' matching buyers with suitable properties, just like a buyer’s agent would. This platform is presently 100% free to use.
For further information contact Liane Fletcher, Co-founder, Property Whispers on 0402 333 012 or liane@propertywhispers.com.au
