3 Ways to Buy a Home in a Seller’s Market
If you are looking to buy a home or know someone who is, you are probably aware it’s a red hot market with very tight supply. Here’s the drill: Listed on Thursday, showing frenzy all weekend. Offers on Monday, “best and final” offers on Tuesday. Your $40,000 over list price finished in the silver. No home for you! Maybe for the 3rd time.
And with so much competition among buyers, owners are extracting ever more favorable terms—no appraisal contingency, limited inspection rights, closing delays and more.
How do you innovate to win?
1. If you must have a “move-in ready” home, don’t fall in love, play the field. Find more than one house that could work, and offer on all the houses you would be happy to own. Instead of bidding $10K,20k or,40K over list, make it $11K, 22K, 43K above. You’ll hit one with persistence.
2. Look for lonely sellers, tactic #1. The vast majority of the bidding frenzy is created by millennial buyers, seeking homes that already look like the ones they see on HGTV. Minor sins like floral wallpaper, salmon & black bathroom tile schemes, and knotty-pine paneling drive away more than half of the buying public. If you can see past the “horrors” you may be the only buyer on the seller’s radar, and thereby empowered.
3. Look for lonely sellers, tactic #2. In a market this hot, 30 days on market is an eternity. Buyer agents call listing agents and say: “your 22 Languid Dr. has been listed 3 weeks—is there something we should know?” Often, they just over priced it and the sellers are beginning to say “why doesn’t anyone just come see the house, and make an offer, so we can negotiate?” You could be that someone! If your limit was $600,000, take a look at houses over 30 days on market and up to $660,000. If you like one offer your limit as a best and final. Buyers ask, “what if we fall in love with a house and they won’t come down?” Is it any more painful than taking 2nd place in a bidding contest? It’s no more likely. In America risk is rewarded!
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Westfield by Grade School:
Scott Gleason scott@luxuryhomesnj.com
RE/MAX Properties Unlimited
Luxury Homes for Sale in Westfield