Every day a new treasure trove of listings are all juggling for facetime. Alongside your child’s discarded Harry Potter wand is a country pad with private driveway, five bedrooms, two bathrooms and some eye-watering acreage, yours at a snip for £2 million should you want to just reply, ‘Why not?’ If you don’t fancy that you could pick up a Devon coastal gem for half a million or a pad in trendy Hoxton for around £800,000. All up for grabs and as easily purchasable as a pair of Nike trainers, size six for £10. Simply slide into the DMs and strike up a conversation with the seller and it’s yours. Daisy Gibbs, aged 41 from Bentley in Suffolk, did just that. An interior designer with a wider interest in property, she directed buyers on WhatsApp to a house that was off market. “I booked two viewings for the next day to a property in Suffolk with an asking price of £2 million. ”This kind of ‘off market’ ‘first dibs’ touting is no longer uncommon. In these ‘invite only’ groups – the unwritten rule is that members are ‘trusted’ – a house listing is as verified as a Kidizoom camera. While the latter leans to a green approach for swapping unwanted childrens’ items – the housing stock trading is a DIY route, cutting out the need for a third party and the hefty agent costs involved in that.
