Accept Pre-Listing Offer on Home or Put it on the Market

[Sunset]

Years ago I saw a house I wanted come up for sale, so I phoned the listing agent and told her I wanted to buy it.
I saw it the next day, and put in an offer.
She was both buyer and seller agent, and she did ZERO work before the offer with me.
I didn't care that she got both commissions as the seller pays them, and I figured it would help her with her fiduciary lying to the the seller.

 

[pb4uski]

...and I figured it would help her with her fiduciary lying to the the seller.

Can you elaborate?

 

[turbo89]

I’ll offer some prospective, from someone who just listed and sold my home (in a hot Boston market). Our house sold for 10% above list price (which was above the “zestimate”), with 18 offers in 1 day.

I recommend watching the local market to see what comparable houses are for sale and which have sold recently (we used Zillow, Redfin, etc.). When we did this for about a month we realized the following:

- There was low inventory of comparable homes (1 or 2 comps would pop on the market every week or so).
- Unless the home was dilapidated, almost all homes in our area were selling 5-10% above the Zillow estimate (some homes we bid on and lost, sold for 30%+ above asking).

Some other interesting observations from our housing sale /search:

- Almost no home is being sold with contingencies (so don’t accept any!).
- When we sold our home, the “worse” offer was asking price, with a home inspection contingency.
- Over the last 3 months or so, recent sale prices (listed on Zillow, Redfin, etc) seem to lag approximately 5% of current “home values”.


In brief, I personally wouldn’t accept an off the market offer.