Off-market homes in London, Ontario
Some London homes do sell before they reach Realtor.ca. Not many, because CREA rules send a publicly marketed home to MLS within three days.
You might be worried the best homes go to someone else first. Here is what is really off-market, and how we look for it.
The Bottom Line (Quick Answer)
- Some homes in London, Ontario sell before they reach Realtor.ca, but not many.
- CREA rules send a publicly marketed home to MLS within three days. So the off-market pool is small.
- The Ken Small Real Estate Team looks in five places before a home is listed. That is an addition to your search, not a replacement.
The short version
- For buyers: off-market homes exist, but the pool is small.
- For sellers: hiding your home is not the same as building demand before you launch it.
- One trades exposure away. The other keeps it. We do the second, never the first.
What does off-market mean?
- An office exclusive. The home never goes on MLS, or goes on late. You trade the whole market for privacy.
- A pre-market build-up. You build demand quietly first, then launch to the entire market on day one with buyers already waiting. Nothing is traded away.
Those are two different things, and only the second one is marketing.
How many London homes sell off-market?
No board publishes a figure. Exclusive listings are, by definition, not in MLS data. Treat any London percentage you see as unverified unless it names LSTAR or CREA.
What we can show you is our own count.
How do you find off-market homes in London?
We look in five places before a home is listed. Owners our ads reach, owners we write to, agents with homes coming soon, pre-market and estate sales, and seller visits.
Getting to a home before the crowd is a real edge on a small pool. Buying with no bidding war beats winning one.
But it is an addition to your search, not a replacement. Anyone telling you the real inventory is hidden is describing a pool CREA capped at three days.
How we look for homes before they are listed
- Ads aimed at owners in the areas you want.
- Letters to owners of homes that fit what you need.
- Calls to agents about homes coming soon in your areas.
- A watch on pre-market, estate and distress sales for you.
- A visit to the seller, so you hear what the home is really like.
What it costs you. It costs $495 to start. Our commission is 3%, paid from the seller’s side of the deal. If a seller offers our brokerage less than 3%, you never pay the difference. Every number is on buyer pricing and fees.
Does hiding a home get a better price?
We have not found a Canadian study on it. No board publishes one.
What is CREA’s three-day rule?
CREA’s REALTOR® Cooperation Policy came into effect on January 3, 2024. When an agent markets a home to the public, it must go on an MLS® System. Each board sets the timeframe, unless an exemption applies. The policy caps it at three days.
Public marketing means “one-to-many”: flyers, yard signs, digital marketing and newsletters. “One-to-one” marketing does not trigger the policy.
Exclusives are not banned. CREA says:
“‘exclusives’ remain as an option for sellers who do not want broad exposure of their property to the public”
(source: CREA, January 9, 2024, opens in a new tab)
It does not block what we do. It structures it. Quiet preparation and one-to-one work have no time limit. The clock starts when we go public. And when we go public, we go everywhere at once.
How do we build demand before a launch?
A home gets one launch. Demand that arrives in a trickle produces one offer at a time. One offer at a time is not a negotiation.
So we do it in two moves.
- Build quietly first. We work our buyer database, our agent network, and owners who have not listed yet. Buyers who match your home know it is coming before the sign goes up.
- Then launch to everyone at once. MLS plus 22 platforms on day one, not a soft start. The list is on how we sell.
- Concentrate the decision. Holding offers to a set date is a marketing tool, not a formality. It turns a queue into a room. Buyers who would have waited now have to decide, and they decide against each other instead of against you.
Hiding the home skips the second move. A 1% listing budget cannot pay for the first one. We do both.
Should you sell your London home off-market?
There are real reasons to sell quietly. A divorce. An estate. Tenants you do not want disturbed. A job you cannot announce. Those are privacy decisions and they are yours.
Just make them knowing the trade. Hiding a home trades away buyers. We have found no Canadian evidence that it pays more. If privacy is worth that to you, we will run it properly. If it is not, do not let anyone sell you secrecy as a strategy.
Two questions to ask any agent
You do not have to take our word for any of this. Ask whoever you are interviewing:
- How much of my total commission stays on my side of the table? How much goes to the agent representing the buyer?
- What is your marketing budget on my home, as a dollar figure, in writing, before I sign?
Our answers are published. Ours is 3% listing side. We recommend 2% to the buyer brokerage, and it is entirely your call. The $1,500 Launch Retainer is spent on your home, not kept as our margin. HST applies on top of all the above. It is all on pricing and fees.
Who this is not for
If you want only homes nobody else can see, we cannot promise that. CREA’s rule keeps that pool small.
If you are selling and want top price with no exposure, that is a trade, not a strategy. We will show you the trade before you choose.
What do London clients say about Ken?
★★★★★All the way from the start of the house search, Ken was there to help at every step. From setting up search criteria that exactly met our needs, to getting viewings scheduled, to providing honest feedback about the properties (which is often rare for most agents); Ken went above and beyond our expectations. 10/10 experience with Ken.
J H · Buyer · Apr 2023 · via Google
★★★★★We would 100% recommend Ken Small if you are wanting to sell or purchase a home. After 65 years in the same house, my father and I had a huge task on our hands to clean it out and get it ready to put on the market. We were able to leave most of this with Ken and his team.
We honestly feel we could not have done this without him. He stepped right in and knew what needed to be done. We felt like he was on the same page with us and we had several offers to look at in less than a week. Ken is kind, personable, professional and turned a very stressful situation into a worry-free one for us once he was on the job.
Awesome job Ken, we can’t thank you enough. We second the other reviewer’s opinion that Ken goes above and beyond!
Denise F. · Seller · Aug 2024 · via Google
4.9 average from 14 Google reviews, as shown on our reviews page (October 2026). Read them all on our reviews page.
The honest takeaway
Getting to one first is an edge, not a whole search.
Common questions about off-market homes in London
What does off-market actually mean?
Is selling off-market better for the seller?
Can a home be advertised without being on Realtor.ca?
Why hold offers until a set date?
How many London homes sell off-market?
Does it cost me anything as a buyer?
Want in before the sign goes up?
Tell us your budget, your areas and your timeline. We will send what matches and tell you straight when nothing does.
About Ken Small
Ken Small, REALTOR®, has been a real estate agent in London since 2003. He leads the Ken Small Real Estate Team at Century 21 First Canadian Corp., Brokerage. The office is at 420 York Street, London, ON N6B 1R1. RECO #4727293. Meet the team →