DealSignals · Blog

Off-market vs on-market: why the best deals never get listed

Plenty of good owners never list at all. Listing means brokers' fees, a public signal to staff and competitors that they're leaving, and a parade of tyre-kickers. An owner who's approached directly and discreetly by a serious buyer will often prefer that to the whole listing circus.

That's why on-market listings are a thin, picked-over slice of what's actually available — and why buyers who only shop listings compete hardest for the least. The off-market world is larger, quieter, and far less contested.

And the most off-market situation of all never chooses to list: a company in liquidation. DealSignals reads those filings straight from the Government Gazette, scores them, and lays them over a ranked view of every business quietly for sale — so the least-contested deals are the first ones you see.

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