Here’s what we do to help buyers win in this strong seller’s market.
In a competitive seller’s market like this, things can be tough for buyers. With most condos and homes garnering multiple offers these days, they’re frustrated about not having theirs accepted. We’ve seen as many as 50 offers come in for some single-family homes.
There are a number of things we do upfront with our buyers to put them in the strongest position possible. The first thing we do is make sure they’re getting all of their documentation to a local lender who’s going to give them the best service (and interest rate) possible. We have several preferred lenders we trust and are happy to recommend to our clients.
Once all the documentation is in and verified, we get the pre-approval. We can feel safer removing the loan contingency when we make an offer because everything has been checked off by the lender.
Obviously, one of the big issues for sellers is price. That’s why we make sure not to max out our clients’ budgets when making offers. We generally back off the top-end price of what our buyers are approved for because homes in this market are seeing offers anywhere from 16% up to 50% above the list price. We give our buyers the room to go up a little bit in price and be competitive in this crazy market.
“We’ve seen as many as 50 offers come in for some single-family homes.”
With that being said, one other strategy we like to use with our buyers is the strength of their down payment. Unfortunately, an offer with only 3% or 5% down can make you a much weaker buyer. There are options we can look at to get you the cash to support a larger down payment and a stronger offer, depending on your situation.
One additional problem buyers have to deal with is low appraisals. Sellers want to know that they’ll still get the agreed-upon sale price even if the appraisal comes in low. They also want to know that you will still pay the price even if your lender won’t foot the entire bill. Ultimately, a property is worth what a buyer is willing to pay and what a seller is willing to sell for.
Finally, we make sure our buyers have nice, clean offers. We contact the listing agent to ask what’s important to their client in an offer. Often, we end up buying properties as is. In addition, the sellers may need to rent the property back for a time after closing until they find their new home in this competitive market.
If you have any questions about how we help buyers win in this market or anything else related to real estate, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
