40% Of Real Estate Investors Surveyed Bought Their Last Property Off-Market

Your last single family or multi-family purchase:

We surveyed 50 real estate investors to find out where they sourced their last deal. Here are the results:

• MLS: 30 (60%)
• Off-market: 20 (40%)

Surprisingly high percentage of off-market transactions

When surveying real estate investors, we expected to see in the range of 15% - 25% of purchases off-market. We were not expecting it to be a 60/40 split. Real estate investors are more disciplined in "running the numbers" and the numbers off-market are currently more attractive as we will discuss in more detail below. What's more, real estate investors tend to be more inclined to purchase fixer uppers and take on complete gut rehabs -- these types of deals are more commonly off-market.

While this is only speculation at this point because follow-up interviews have not been conducted, we believe the current environment of record low housing inventory and record low mortgage rates has forced real estate investors and savvy home buyers to look off-market where competition is lower and prices are more attractive.

We also believe an increasing proportion of sellers want to avoid the hassle, health concerns and expensive fees of listing on the MLS and multiple showings and open houses. Much of this attitude among sellers has been brought on by pandemic and the fact that families are all at home, working from home with children remote learning.