I read an article yesterday on Foxnews.com. The article was about the real estate market turning to a sellers market because of the lack of inventory, and different ways for buyers to get the house they want. One way they focused on was finding a "pocket listing".
The article did a nice job describing what a pocket listing is...but I will summarize. A pocket listing is a listing that is not advertised on the MLS, or anywhere else....yet.
Most top producing agents know of upcoming listings that they will have about 1-3 weeks before they actually hit the MLS. There are many reasons why...usually it boils down to 2 reasons though. The first is that the homeowner wants a little time to follow the suggestions the listing agent recommends, to bring them top dollar. The second reason is that it takes about a week to get a professional photographer out to the house, and to get everything uploaded into the mls. Some agents do not do professional photos (most don't)...but most of the top producing agents do (or should!).
So how do you find out about these pocket listings?!? The only real way is to find a top agent, at a top office, who is hungry for business, and networks well. I, and my team, are those agents. We are top producers, work in an office with several other top producers, and network outside of our office with other top agents. I can tell you at this very moment I know of 4 homes coming to the market in North Port, in the next 3 weeks...all of which would be happy to allow a buyer a 'sneak peek'. There are 4 of us on our team that talk daily...you do the math. If each of us know of 3-4 homes, that is 12-16 pocket listings that we can find out about with just a quick phone call to each other! A quick walk around our office can get word on a few more. Networking beyond our office is effective too...and actually not very time consuming for this reason: Everyone has heard of the 80/20 rule. In real estate is it more of a 90/10 rule. The top 10% of realtors do about 90% of the business....so it is a small group of us that really can/do reach out to each other to find out about each others upcoming listings.
If you are looking for the 'edge' in your home buying experience, this is it! All you have to do is reach out to one of us today! All it takes is a quick call or email to let us know you are ready to buy, and what you are looking for. If there is nothing right now, we will remember you!
This applies not only to North Port homes for sale...but also, Port Charlotte, and Punta Gorda!