You’re Not Making An Offer In A Seller’s Market
The title is pretty self explanatory honestly. We should wrap up here. Bye!!! 👋🏿
Okay, I’ll get serious. This post is partially an informative one and partially me bitching into the uncaring void. Either way, it’s happening.
In a seller’s market, there are more people looking for homes than there are homes available for them to buy. In my market, there are about 1.25 months of inventory available right now which is absurdly low. This means that the market is full of the following situations:
- You go out to see a home that just listed the day before and when you get there you learn that the home is already under contract and no longer available.
- You go see a home that’s been on the market for two hours and when you get there, you learn that there are already three offers on the home, all above the asking price.
- You go to new construction to avoid these issues (not many multiple offers in this world) and find that builders now have a cap on how many homes they can sell a month AND a waiting list of 50+ people for the next available homes.
- The few builders that don’t have a cap on how many homes they can sell, have nothing that you can move into until anywhere from August-Early 2022.
What I am trying to explain, is that the market is fucking ridiculous right now. Here are some actual situations that have happened to me or someone directly connected to me:
- Someone listed their late on Monday. By the end of Tuesday (you know, the next day), they had eight offers. All over asking. All waiving the appraisal contingency.
- Someone came in to see a home with me on Saturday. Loved it, but wanted to think about it. I warned them that the home would probably sell that day. They think I am a “typical” salesperson (like I even have the energy to work that way) and don’t believe me. The home sells an hour later. Many tears and accusations about how I didn’t warn them the next day.
- We had a completed home where the buyers had to cancel the contract in my neighborhood (Note: If you owe the gov’t money, don’t try to get a gov’t loan. It won’t work.). I sent out an e-blast to all the agents I knew and waited. The home was sold and under contract by the end of the weekend. Technically three people tried to buy it, but the first two did not qualify for it.
On top of all the stuff above, pricing is going up every week. Like 1-3 times a week. A home I sold for $229,990 in March 2020 is now $280,990. Hell, a home I sold for $338,990 in August is now $370,990. So, crazy market. I hope this has been established.
In all of this, why, in anyone’s name, would anyone think making a lowball offer would work out well? Currently, a lowball offer is anything under the sales price (and honestly, also the sales price).
Someone came into my office and tried to offer 10K below the price of the home. Then got mad when I refused to even acknowledge the said offer and would not call my manager. I think the exact conversation was:
Him: You can ask your manager.
Me: Absolutely not.
Him: Why? It’s a valid offer!
Me: Because I enjoy working here. I like my health insurance. I am not going to piss my manager off with this nonsense offer when she will absolutely laugh and say no. Plus, I need to stay in her good graces so that the next time I screw up, we’re all good.
His agent found this funny, but he did not sadly. 🙁
In any event, he did buy the home at the full price. I did actually end up telling my boss about it later and she was very happy I didn’t call her cause it would have pissed her off. Called it!
In a market where we can barely keep any home available for more than a week, you are not going to get anywhere by offering under asking. If the people are nice, they will ask you for a better offer. If they are anyone else, they will just reject it and call that done cause they have five other offers to choose from. It’s just the way it is right now.
So now you know. Please spread the word far and wide. Save people time and tears. Thank you for listening to my bitching. 🙂
Anyone trying to buy a home in this market? How’s that going?
We closed at the end of March and I think we found a unicorn. List was $419k, we offered $405k and compromised on $410k with closing costs paid by us. We also did not waive appraisal or the inspection…… Not that it did us one bit of good because they refused to fix anything or offer a credit. Fucking seller’s market.
That is definitely a unicorn; glad you found it! 🙂 Yeah, the appraisal & inspection are pretty much going through the motions at this point. Seller’s Markets are crazy. Thanks for reading!
3-4 years ago we had to make 10 offers to even get one of them considered. When we sold, we had 10 offers, 3 of which were even worth considering. None of them were below or at list price.
We sold our rental last year and I had 6 offers in hand by the end of the first day.
I don’t get it but it’s the reality of the market right now and it’s mind-blowing.
I know! It’s absolute craziness. We’re at the point of agents going, “Before we list, let me call three agents I know.” By the end of those convos, they are already 15K over asking before they even put it on MLS. Just craziness.
Thanks for reading!