I'm Buying a House That Wasn't for Sale. Here's How I Made It Happen

I'm going to be buying a house very soon. This is something I've done many times before, and something that people do often (although, less often now during this time of high mortgage rates).

The difference in this particular situation is that the home I'm buying was not actually for sale. Even though it wasn't listed on the Multiple Listing Service and the owners were not actually looking for a buyer, I'm due to close any day now.

Here's why I took this approach -- and how I made it happen.

Here's why I purchased a house that wasn't for sale

I opted to purchase a house that was not actually for sale for one very simple reason. There simply were no houses for sale that I wanted to buy.

The inventory of homes for sale is around 45.1% lower now than before the COVID-19 pandemic. And things are only getting worse. In September, the number of homes actively for sale fell for the fifth consecutive month, decreasing by 4% compared to the prior year at a time when there were already many fewer houses for sale.

This isn't great for any buyer, but it made things especially difficult for me because I really wanted to be in a specific neighborhood and I did not want rear neighbors and there aren't many homes for sale in the area that don't have houses on all sides of them.

Faced with the fact that there was absolutely no choice of houses I wanted, I had to take a different approach rather than just looking at home listings and contacting a mortgage lender.

Here's how I made it happen

To find a home that I wanted, I visited my desired neighborhood and made a list of properties I was interested in. I searched them online, found one for rent, and had my real estate agent call and see if the owner would be interested in selling. After quite a lot of back-and-forth negotiations, they agreed they would be willing to allow us to buy the property. I also made a fair offer based on my research into what similar homes in the neighborhood had sold for.

The house I ended up with was the second one I had my real estate agent reach out about. The first was neither listed for rent nor for sale, and they weren't willing to consider an offer. But it can be worth asking even if a house isn't on the market in any capacity -- although you'll likely have a better chance of success with this approach if you can find one for rent.

There are other ways you can try to find a house that's not listed, including putting the word out that you are looking and working with an agent familiar with the area who might know people who are planning to sell soon. Also, consider visiting open houses to talk with any neighbors who potentially come by and let them know you'd be interested in looking at their homes if they ever decide to sell.

With the market the way it is right now, trying out some of these creative approaches could be essential if you want to find the home of your dreams and it's not listed for sale. At least it's worth the effort to try, as you wait for the right place to come onto the MLS.