Office Exclusive Listings Provide Options
In a tight real estate market with limited inventory, selling your home via an “office exclusive listing” (OEL), can provide you several strategic options for how you transition from your current home to your next home.
An office exclusive listing (OEL) is essentially an agreement to sell your home with your Realtor but without the marketing, the sign, the MLS, and all of the fanfare.
There are several benefits to trying this method:
- Confidentiality: The OEL agreement allows your Realtor to secretly sell your home and if it doesn’t sell, it will not be on public record on the MLS and the Internet. Realistically, word could eventually get out, but it is very low-key and is typically perceived as, “well the seller would consider selling if they got the right price, but they are not truly in the market to sell”.
- Privacy: Many sellers dislike the idea of everyone knowing their business. They do not want a sign; they dislike the thought of strangers in their home; they are uncomfortable with friends, family, neighbors, and work colleagues seeing photos of their home and knowing the price. The OEL avoids this public spectacle.
- Leverage: If a buyer is introduced to a OEL and they like it, they have little room to negotiate on price and or possession terms, as the seller has the option of doing a true MLS listing in the future. The seller is unlikely to come off their price prior to testing the market.
- Seasonality: Beginning in November as home inventory dwindles, homeless buyers (those who have recently sold their homes or are relocating) have few homes to choose from and they are desperate for their Realtor to uncover potential sellers who are considering moving.
- Testing the Market: This is the best way to see just how high you can push your price and if the efforts fail, it was done confidentially and one can realign their expectations or make some cosmetic changes prior to doing a full service listing of their home.
- Timing and positioning for the next purchase: Most sellers and Realtors alike agree that listing and selling in the spring is the best time of the year to sell and conversely, the worst time is between November and February. On the contrary, sellers have the most competition in the spring, and the least in the winter. We can help you be the seller who captures top dollar in the winter and then is financially in the position to make a non-contingent offer to buy in the spring. Listings will be hitting the market in droves each week come March and buyers will be competing for the best homes. By making a clean offer that does not involve the sale or closing of an existing home, puts the buyer in the best position to have the winning offer.
- Lower Commission: At ELEETE Real Estate, our fees are typically 1% lower on a OEL.
- Easy Cancellation: At ELEETE Real Estate, our OEL can be cancelled at any time without penalty.
It should be noted that the primary disadvantage to an OEL is that you would miss out on the potential of having an open market bidding war which could net you a higher price. Additionally, if you were going on the market, you would likely put a lot more effort in to preparing the home for sale which would also likely lead to yielding you a higher return.
To learn more about the pros and cons of an OEL, call your ELEETE Realtor or call Lee Davies or Julie Williams today and we will introduce you to the best broker team to serve you.