What does off market mean in real estate? A home that is not currently listed for sale on the MLS: either it was listed and came off (sold, withdrawn, expired), or it is being sold quietly without a public listing.
The phrase carries two meanings and a listing's status tells you which. A home that shows as off market on a portal was listed and no longer is: it sold and the sale has not yet recorded, the seller withdrew it, the listing expired, or it went under contract and the feed stopped showing it. Almost every home in the country is off market in this sense most of the time.
The other meaning is a home being sold without a public listing: a pocket listing, where an agent markets it privately to their own buyers, or an owner selling directly to somebody they know or to an investor who wrote to them. These sales avoid the MLS's exposure on purpose, usually for privacy or speed, and they are the reason a buyer hears about a home that was never for sale. National MLS rules since 2020 require agents to list a home publicly within a day of marketing it at all, which has made true pocket listings rarer but not extinct.
For a buyer, off-market homes are where competition is thinnest and prices are least tested, and the way to find them is to look at what is not listed: Kouzr's property pages carry the county record for every parcel in the Las Vegas valley, listed or not, which is the starting point for an offer on a home nobody has put up for sale.
A worked example
A portal shows a home as off market with a last list price of $410,000 in May. The county recorder shows a deed recorded in June for $398,000: it sold, and the portal's status lagged the record by a month. A second home shows off market with no sale recorded; the seller withdrew it, and it is a candidate for a direct offer.
Look up any Las Vegas property, listed or not
Questions people ask
Can you buy a house that is off market?
Yes, by finding the owner and making an offer directly, or through an agent who knows of homes being sold quietly. The county's parcel record gives the owner's name and mailing address.
Why would a seller sell off market?
Privacy, speed, or a buyer already in hand. Sellers who skip the MLS usually take a lower price for it, which is the buyer's opportunity and the seller's cost.