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If you’re looking for a luxury home and come up empty-handed despite having a healthy budget, you’re not alone. Many high-end buyers are discovering that the homes they want are simply no longer publicly listed. This can be incredibly frustrating.
That’s because in today’s luxury real estate market, a growing portion of properties are sold off-market, meaning they never appear on the MLS, have no traditional marketing, and skip open houses entirely. The result? Even well-financed and cash buyers can struggle to find inventory that meets their criteria.
“This is a big change from ten years ago,” said Ricky Carruth, Chief Housing Analyst at RLTYco.
And even when luxury homes hit the MLS, the listings look different than they used to. This means including fewer photos, lighter descriptions and less detail on the property’s salient features.
While this may seem counterintuitive, the move toward discretion has quietly become one of the most influential trends in luxury real estate.
The silent rise of off-market luxury homes
While off-market listings may seem new to many buyers, they have long existed at the highest levels of the market, especially in New York City.
“It has been part of the New York luxury market for decades, especially among ultra-high-net-worth sellers,” notes Mike Fabbria luxury real estate agent at The Agency. “What has changed in recent years is how common and intentional it has become, driven by greater online visibility, social media exposure and a greater focus on privacy and control.”
This shift has accelerated dramatically during the pandemic. When longtime city dwellers decided to leave urban centers such as New York, demand increased without a corresponding increase in supply.
“In my market, the off-market trend has really taken hold around Covid,” Libby McKinney Tritschler by William Raveis tells me. “There was a huge influx of buyers from New York City and there simply wasn’t enough inventory to meet demand. During that time, agents had to be proactive – knocking on doors, calling previous customers and contacting neighbors – to discover potential sellers.”
So what started out as a necessity in 2020 eventually became a preference in 2026.
When social media exposure becomes a liability
While social media has transformed real estate marketing, it has also introduced new risks, especially for high-profile and ultra-wealthy sellers.
“Sellers don’t want their home to be treated as content or as a backdrop for curiosity,” Fabbri explains. “Off-market gives sellers the ability to control who sees the property, how it is presented and when information is shared. For many high-net-worth sellers, the goal is not visibility; it is control.”
Once photos are online, they are essentially permanent. This has led to sellers becoming increasingly cautious about posting every little detail of their home online, especially for wealthy individuals and public figures.
“Once something is online, you can’t get it back. Sellers are becoming increasingly cautious about detailed photography that remains online indefinitely,” Fabbri explains. “Many prefer to limit photos or reserve full details only for vetted buyers. I once had a photographer digitally remove a highly recognizable, valuable piece of art from a listing photo.”
As a result, many listings now withhold floor plans, detailed layouts, security systems, safes, valuable collections and even certain outdoor areas until a buyer has been fully vetted.
In some markets, the safety concerns are even more explicit. “A cop I know in Beverly Hills won’t photograph wineries, safes or security systems anymore — sellers demanded this after a $2 million jewelry theft where the thieves clearly knew the layout,” says Carruth.
Privacy, not security: is often the real driver
In other markets, privacy completely outweighs security concerns. Ivan Chorney of the Ivan + Mike team at Compass shares that this is increasingly the case in Miami.
“As Miami has become more affluent and visible globally, demand for private transactions has increased significantly over the past three to five years,” the broker notes. “Privacy is the main driver. Many owners do not want neighbors, staff or the general public to know about their business.”
Sellers are also pushing back against the way homes are publicly valued.
“Another problem is the growing frustration with mass portals and automated pricing tools that often misrepresent prices,” Chorney adds. “Sellers are increasingly resistant to having their homes defined by algorithms or public speculation.”
When salespeople don’t have to sell
Another reason why off-market listings are flourishing: Many luxury sellers actually don’t need to sell.
“Often ultra-luxury properties are only available off-market because a seller will only consider an extremely attractive offer,” Lisa Simonsensays a broker at Brown Harris Stevens. “Other sellers want to test the market, or mistakenly believe they can get a higher price by selling off-market, which is not the case for a standard two-bedroom apartment or a country house in a subdivision.”
Off-market homes are often rare, architecturally distinctive and priced well above the local average. Because there is no urgency to sell, owners retain their influence.
“The lack of urgency means they are operating from a position of power,” Chorney explains. “Ultimately it comes down to scarcity. If the product is truly unique, demand will arise no matter how steadfast the seller is.”
How buyers can access off-market homes
For buyers, accessing off-market properties comes down to relationships and responsiveness. Houses that are not on the market are not listed in a secret database. They require agents to tap into personal networks, call colleagues and quietly match buyers with sellers.
“If you want your broker to use their relationships and reputation to find you something outside the market, you need to position yourself as the kind of client worth risking that capital for,” Carruth reveals.
This is not something that real estate agents and brokers do for the average buyer. “Off-market deals happen because of relationships, not because of listings,” he says. “Your broker will call colleagues, contact previous clients and tap their network. That takes time and social capital.”
Carruth also emphasizes speed and communication. “If your agent offers you an off-market opportunity, respond within 24 hours. Even if it’s ‘not quite right,’ explain why and refine the criteria.”
“The quickest way to stop deal flow outside the market is to be unresponsive or indecisive,” he adds. “Agents talk – if you burn one agent wasting their time on off-market deals, good luck getting another to work that hard for you.”
Why off-market is still not for everyone
Despite its growing popularity, selling off-market isn’t always the best move.
“Out-of-market sales absolutely have their place,” says Tritschler. “If I have a buyer who clearly fits a home and appreciates a seller’s discretion, I will always explore that path.”
Still, she cautions against assuming that privacy always outweighs exposure. “I firmly believe we are still in a market where exposure matters. The more attention focused on a home, the more opportunities there are for strong listings and leverage.”
For many sellers, certainty remains the goal. “Most sellers ultimately want certainty – and that is still best achieved by letting the market speak.”
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