It’s been several months of going on appointments with your Realtor. You have attended every open house on the weekends. You have had your Realtor write up offers that either get rejected or get no response from the seller. It seems that for every offer you write, you are dealing with sellers that will not budge on the selling price.
This is starting to wear you down now, but you still keep tugging along. Your Realtor continues to send you email alerts every time a new listing hits the market. You find the home that you absolutely must have. When you have your Realtor write up an offer, you tell them all of the reasons that you want to offer less than the list price. Your Realtor shows you the comps in the area that justify the list price. However, you believe you should at least start with a lower offer. This has happened many times now and seems to have become a routine.
Sellers Market
At this point, you should probably step back and take a look at what is happening here. It is obvious that it is a seller’s market right now. But you are still stuck on the fact that you should never write an offer at a list price. This may work in a buyer’s market, but right now, in San Diego’s Metro communities (North Park,South Park, University Heights,Normal Heights, and several others), we are definitely in a seller’s market. We are receiving multiple offers on our listings within the first 5-7 days.
Offers are coming in at or above the list price. If you happen to be an offer that comes in below the list price, most likely you will not receive a counteroffer. You will not have an opportunity to compete with the other offers that came in much higher than yours. Sellers want to just go ahead and accept the offer of the buyer that stepped up to the plate, leaving you with another unanswered response to another offer that you have made.
Not Ready To Buy Yet with the Selling Price
With this being said, if you simply don’t feel comfortable writing an offer that is selling price or above, it may be time to have a conversation with your Realtor. Deep down inside you may not be ready to make this huge financial commitment of being a homeowner right now. This is normal and ok. Try to figure this out early on so it can save you a lot of time and aggravation. It is ok not to buy a home. It may be better for you to rent right now. Just make sure that you sit down with your lender/mortgage broker and or accountant and do the numbers. If it makes more sense for you to rent for the next few years, then sit tight and take a breather.
Wait until you are financially and mentally ready. Contact the McT Real Estate Group. We will sit down with you and come up with a strategic plan to help you with your Real Estate goals. Finding a home will become less stressful and make more sense to you at that time. You will be in a different mindset. You will then notice your offers getting accepted or at least countered.