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Your Realtor For Life

How To Buy a Home In A Seller's market

How to Buy a Home in a Sellers' Market


Trying to buy a home in a sellers' market is a little like not having a date on Saturday night. Everyone else seems to be having all the fun but you. Since there are more buyers than homes for sale in a sellers' market, homes sell quickly and for higher prices than they normally would. Seeing homes in which you are interested sell out from under you and at outrageous prices can be frustrating and discouraging. You continue to drive your favorite neighborhoods, but begin to lose hope that you'll ever get there first and for the right price.


What can you do? If you are in a sellers' market, and wish to buy a home, flip the odds back in your favor.


Do the following:  Be prepared to buy.
Get your finances in order, clean up your credit, and talk to a mortgage broker or direct lender about becoming pre-approved for a loan.

Make Your Offer the Most Attractive.
If you have the opportunity to bid on a home with multiple offers, make sure yours is the most attractive offer. Make sure the seller knows how much you like the home, how prepared you are to buy it and that you will make for an easy transaction. Keep contingencies to a minimum; the seller will assume that any contingency is a loophole to get out of the contract. In a sellers' market, they have no reason reason to allow you to tie up the home. Make it clear that you are ready to move toward closing.

Use a REALTOR(R). In Selling

Some homeowners think that selling their own home will save money and give them an advantage over the Realtor-using majority. Before you start down this complicated path, here are a few reasons why using a real estate professional is important: 1) You will be drastically limiting your exposure to potential buyers, which means it can take between 10 and 15 times longer to sell your home. Houses that take a long time to sell usually sell for less because buyers believe there must be something wrong with them. 2) Most buyers find negotiating with sellers extremely awkward, and therefore avoid For Sale By Owner situations. 3) Most buyers use a Realtor in their home search, and most buyers' agents will typically not work with FSBOs because they will not be paid. This means you will have to offer a selling commission to attract buyer's agents, which will cut into your expected "savings." 4) Lack of negotiating experience can result in a lower selling price, or worse, a bungled contract and possible lawsuits. It is probably unwise to pit your negotiating skills against those of experienced professionals. 5) If you plan to use a lawyer to help you negotiate, your lawyer's fees could be considerably higher than a Realtor's commission. Unlike Realtors, lawyers do not get paid for proactively representing your best interests or mediating delicate situations. 6) You only pay a commission to your Realtor if they successfully sell your home at a price you are happy with.

Always get an inspection.

Any purchase offer you make should be contingent upon your approval of a qualified home inspector's report, even when buying a new or almost new home. Friends, family, or your Realtor may be able to refer you to a good inspector, or you can contact the Better Business Bureau for a list. Even if your lender does not require it, you may want to consider conducting a full land survey--property line disputes could potentially cost you thousands down the road, and are typically not covered by title insurance.