How to Win a Home Before It Even Hits the Market

By Joshua Holt

Meet Joshua, a licensed real estate professional and accomplished broker. As the forward-thinking leader of the Holt Real Estate Team, he has forged a strategic alliance with Keller Williams and PLACE to deliver on Our Promise.

What if you could make an offer on a home before anyone else even sees it? That means no bidding war and no crowd to beat, just you and the seller at the table. Most buyers here in Madison have no idea it’s even possible, yet it’s how one of us bought our own home. Let us show you how it works.

Here’s what’s happening in our market right now. We’re tracking more active listings than we’ve seen in years, probably the most since before the pandemic, with well over two thousand in our core area. On the surface, buyers seem to have every option. The twist is that some homes still draw multiple offers, and many now appear online as coming soon before showings ever start. You’ve seen it while scrolling online or driving a neighborhood you love: a sign with a coming soon rider and a home you can’t tour yet.

Most buyers wait for the photos, then line up to compete with everyone else. One of our agents recently worked with a buyer who had lost on four or five homes that way. We used this strategy instead, and they closed last Friday with no bidding war.

A coming soon home is a delayed listing. In our MLS, we call these delayed listings. The seller has signed with an agent and the home is officially listed, but showings haven’t opened yet. Until recently, delayed listings weren’t visible to the public. Now they reach all the major sites, so buyers are seeing homes ahead of the crowd for the first time.

That early window is what separates a prepared buyer from the rest of the field. You’ll usually see only the basics: maybe one photo, the beds and baths, the square footage, and a note that showings start soon. That small window is a real opportunity if you know what to do with it.

Your offer includes a walkthrough clause. Instead of waiting for showings, you write an offer now, before the home goes active. It’s a normal offer with one key provision: it’s subject to you completing a walkthrough. Once the seller accepts, you typically get 48 to 72 hours to see the home in person. After that, you get a short window, usually about a day, to walk away if it’s not right.

If you don’t back out, the deal proceeds like any other, and you want an agent structuring it the way we help buyers stand out in this market. Be clear-eyed about the tradeoff, since you’re offering with limited information up front. That walkthrough clause is your safety net. Worst case, the seller says no, and you’ve lost nothing. Best case, they say yes, and you’ve skipped the competition entirely.

Sellers trade prep work for certainty. You might wonder why a seller would agree to this, and that’s what makes it a genuine win-win. Think about what listing normally demands: deep cleaning, decluttering, staging, photos, and a stream of showings. It’s a lot of stress, especially for sellers trying to buy their next home at the same time. A strong offer before all of that gives them less time on the market and a real solution.

They can close faster, cut holding costs, and skip much of the prep. For many sellers, that convenience is worth a great deal. It rarely comes together on the first try, so it takes an agent who can structure and negotiate it inside a shifting Madison market. When a motivated buyer meets a motivated seller, everyone comes out ahead.

Smart timing turns into a real edge. This fall is a strong time for serious buyers and sellers to come together. With more listings than we’ve seen in years, real opportunity is out there for buyers who move smart. Offering before a home hits the market isn’t right for every situation. When it fits, though, it can be the difference between winning the home you love and losing out again, and choosing the right season to act only sharpens that edge.

If you’re buying here in the Madison area, this is exactly the kind of strategy we love helping our clients with. Call or text us at 608-345-6594, email us at info@holtrealestateteam.com, or visit holtrealestateteam.com. Reach out before you start your search, and let’s talk about how to get you a real edge.