Benefit to Sellers Off-Market transactions?

[Jordan Brant]

Hi everyone. I have been reading and listening to some more podcasts and the theme of the current environment seems to be: 1) tightest market in decades, 2) extremely low likelihood of finding good deal on MLS and 3) must find off-market deals.

My question to the community, especially any sellers, what is the benefit of selling off-market? If you own a property and someone plants the seed about selling, what prevents them from putting it on the MLS? I understand you can save 4-5% on broker fees, but getting to even minimal cash flow on a deal seems like you'll need 20-30% discount to what's on MLS in this market.

What prevents sellers from testing out the open market if they are interested in selling?