Let’s analyze what has happened in a couple of cases:

In an off-market case, two agents discovered they had a common interest in a property.  One represented the seller and the other the buyer. It took 6 months for them to agree on terms and in that time the price point went from $1.2 million to $1.4 million.  The seller did not need to prepare the property and saved $25,000.  It took time to sell but it did result in a successful sale.

In an on-market case the property was prepared for sale.  It took about a month to prepare and the seller spent $25,000.  The home was exposed on the Multiple Listing Service & held open for one weekend. The list price was $1.3 million.  The result was 8 offers it sold for $1.7 million.

In the Off-Market case the seller netted 19% over the initial asking price but took 6 months to find the right buyer.  In the On-Market case, the seller netted 28% over asking in a shorter period of time but took the risk of spending the money to prepare the home.

So which way is better- you decide!