Sometimes my best thoughts come in the middle of the night.

It started with a sunny day in mid-June. I had booked a few days off and was listening to a Rich Roll podcast in my car on the way to the Laurentians. I was enjoying the peaceful solo drive and looking forward to meeting up with my brothers and mother to celebrate her 80^th birthday. My phone rang, but I didn’t recognize the number and didn’t feel like interrupting such a nice drive so I decided to let it ring and let my voicemail do its job.

When I stopped for gas I listened to the message. It was a man named Oliver. He and his wife, Penny, wanted to speak to me about selling their home. I was on vacation, but decided to call Oliver back because I really appreciate it when someone takes the time to call ME when there are over 40,000 Realtors to choose from. Oliver said they wanted to move in 2 weeks. I thought he meant they wanted to put their home on the market in two weeks, but no, they wanted to prepare their home for market, list it, sell it, close and move…..all in two weeks. I suggested they might be better off going with one of the other Realtors whom they were interviewing because I wouldn’t be able to meet their deadline since I was out of town and couldn’t even meet with them for 5 days. Oliver said they wanted to wait for me, which was very nice of them.

After a great weekend with my mother and brothers, the first thing I did when I returned to Toronto was meet with Oliver and Penny. They had already spoken to the other Realtors. After taking a tour of their home we sat down to talk. First up on the agenda was their timing. I explained the importance of taking the time to prepare their home for market properly if they wanted to get the highest price possible and politely noted there was a fair amount of work to do. They were faced with two options: 1.  List their home immediately in its current state to give themselves a chance to move in two weeks, or 2. Take the time to prepare it for market properly to maximize their chances of getting the highest price possible. The problems with the second option were that they wouldn’t be able to move in two weeks and they’d have to list their home in the summer which can be less than ideal. We spent some time analyzing these two options, followed that up with a discussion about a bunch of other aspects of their house sale and then I left.

I had only driven about a block from their home when my phone rang. This time, I recognized Oliver’s number. He said they wanted to hire me. I was happy, but also a little nervous because even though they’d decided they preferred to put off the sale of their home for a few weeks so they could prepare it for market properly, I knew that in their hearts of hearts they really wanted to move in two weeks and it’s very important to me to help my clients achieve their goals.

We immediately started planning what needed to be done to get their home ready for market.  I went to bed that night feeling a little stressed, but like usual fell asleep shortly after my head hit the pillow.

At some point during the night I sort of woke up. I say “sort of” because I was in that state when you feel like you’re asleep but also awake at the same time. Know what I mean? That’s when the idea came to me: I should call Alex because he may be the solution.

Alex was a Realtor I met only a month or so earlier. I had seen his name around and knew that he did a lot of business. We met in the course of an offer presentation and had ample time to chat while other things were going on. One of the things Alex said was this: “Michael, if you ever have a client who wants to sell without going to market, call me because I have buyers for every type of property and they’ll buy it.” I thought he was joking because no one I know has that many buyers, but he assured me he was serious. This was the perfect opportunity to see if Alex could indeed deliver on his bold statement.

But first I had to speak to Oliver and Penny to see if they were open to the idea of selling their home without putting it on the market. I told them about Alex’s statement. I told them it was worth a shot because it might allow them to sell their home and move much more quickly than if they put it on the market. Then we talked about what price to ask. I explained that we should pick the price we thought they’d get in a multiple offer situation, which would be an excellent price, but they’d be giving up the chance of going to market and getting a ridiculous lottery winning price because one never knows what can happen when a home goes to market.

It boiled down to this: If Alex came through and brought them an acceptable offer, they’d get an excellent multiple offer price, a quick closing and not have to do all the work necessary to prepare their home for market. On the negative side, they’d give up the opportunity to try for a lottery winning price. Not that they were guaranteed a lottery winning price, but there’s always a chance. They decided that a quick closing with an excellent price was preferable to a longer closing with the chance of a lottery winning price so they instructed me to call Alex, which I did later that night.

After the pleasantries, I said “I have clients who are willing to sell their home before it goes to market. Let me describe it to you so you can tell me if you have a buyer for it.” I barely had the words out of my mouth before Alex replied “You don’t need to describe it to me. I have buyers.”

Alex showed the home to a client of his the next morning, sent me an offer a couple hours later and we finalized a deal later in the day. Oliver and Penny were very happy – they sold their home for a really good price, didn’t have to do any work to prepare their home for market and got a quick closing (not quite as quick as two weeks, but pretty close).

Now, I don’t often recommend to my clients that they sell their homes without going to market. In fact, I almost always advise them to go to market because the market almost always delivers the best result. But on the odd occasion, when the circumstances are juuuust right, it can make sense to sell without going to market. The difficulty is in determining when it makes sense to do that and that’s where experience, market knowledge and relationships with other Realtors come in.

As always, if you know anyone who’s interested in learning how the market works and who’d like to receive the kind of help that involves honest answers, straightforward advice, no pressure and being treated like family, please let me know the best way for me to connect with them because I’d like to offer them this kind of help. And as always, don’t be shy if you have any questions or comments about this post! Thanks for reading.