With a low supply of homes for sale, sellers are finding quicker sales and fetching higher offers. Eighty two percent of homeowners who sold in the last six months accepted offers at list price or above, according to a new survey of about 1,600 homeowners conducted by Homes.com.
What’s more, homes are selling fast too: A quarter of home sellers said they had five or fewer showings before finding a buyer. Twenty-six percent had between six and 10 showings before selling. Nearly 10% say they had no in-person showings at all and were still able to sell their home. Virtual tours have been increasing since the pandemic.
- Eighty-eight percent of the homes sold in April were on the market for less than a month, according to National Association of REALTORS® data.
- Twenty-seven percent of sellers surveyed say they accepted offers $10,000 or even $20,000 higher than their requested sales price, according to the Homes.com seller survey.
- Sellers expect more—than just the price—from offers lately. Many sellers surveyed by Homes.com say they refused consideration of contingencies or other strings-attached offers. Twenty-eight percent of sellers even said they required all-cash payments, no contingencies, and 30 days or less to close. Fourteen percent said they opted to sell their home “as is.”
It is even worse here in silicon valley. Here noncontingent offers have been standard practice for at least two years and multiple bidders drive the price up for every listing sometimes to over $1 million over the list price. So how does a first time buyer compete in this market? Here are a few tips to help you along:
- Get preapproved – This is a must. Sellers will not consider offers with out a loan preapproval. Some lenders will go one step further and provide a full underwriter approval. This is attractive to the seller because it say that all of the work on approving you for the loan is complete and all that will remain to closing the loan is the property appraisal. Work with a mortgage broker that is willing to call the listing agent to further attest to your
creditworthiness and seriousness.
- Write your offer with the fastest closing time your lender can accommodate. Sellers typically prefer faster escrows as it will save them money and present less risk to close.
- If possible, put more than the minimum down. I know this one can be hard, but if you can swing it, your offer will look a lot stronger in the eyes of the seller.
- Ask your agent to fully go over everything involved in making an offer including the buying process, the contract and the disclosure package.so when you find the right home and are ready to make an offer, you are prepared to respond quickly to either get your offer in on the offer date or maybe make a pre-emptive offer.
- Work with an agent that will go above and beyond to get your offer accepted. This is where I come in. I have a lot of experience helping first time buyers get their offer accepted.
If you are a first time buyer and you are afraid that you can’t compete in today’s crazy market. I can definitely help. Please reach out today and let’s get started finding your dream home.