Here are a few tips about getting your offer accepted in a hot market.
How do you get your offer accepted in a market like this? Today I’ll share my best tips to help you as a homebuyer succeed in our red-hot market.
First, find a great REALTOR to work with. It takes knowledge and understanding of the market to get a deal put together. When a house receives 15 offers, that means 14 buyers and their agents will lose out. Agents are really working overtime, repeating the same processes with their buyers as each new listing comes on the market until they win. This can be frustrating for buyers who are putting forth their best efforts and wind up not winning the deal.
Currently, we have 742 homes on the market, but we should have 3,000 to 4,000. Every time a new listing comes on the market, all the buyers leap on it at once. For homes in the $500,000-and-under price range, a listing can get 20 offers in just 24 hours. I recently had a listing for a $1.5 million house that got six offers in a day. As a buyer in our market, you need to be prepared to come in with a full-price offer; an escalation clause might not go amiss either.
Another key tip is to do your part to take the stress off the seller. Give them a price they can live with, remove your contingencies as soon as you can, and refrain when possible from asking them for any repairs. You can still do an inspection, just don’t come back and ask for any credits. Depending on the seller’s needs, which your agent can figure out by communicating with the listing agent, a quick close and allowing the seller to stay in the house for, say, 30 to 60 days may also sweeten your offer in the seller’s eyes. Movers are overbooked right now, so the seller may need some extra time to move.
Remember, in our market, cash is king. If you have a loan, consider taking away the appraisal contingency. You’ll get an appraisal for the loan, of course, but taking away the contingency will show that you have the money to close if the appraisal doesn’t come in where the bank needs it to. In an upmarket where prices are changing so rapidly, it’s sometimes hard to get appraisers to come to the price of what homes are selling for now versus where they were just 30 days ago.
If I can help you structure a deal or answer any questions you have about buying a home in today’s market, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. We can help you come up with creative ways to make your offer look better than your competition.
