Posted on Monday, February 09, 2015
(buyers were prepared to move quickly on this home in a seller’s market)
Real estate is booming again, supplies of existing properties are very low, prices are jumping and seller’s are feeling their oats. What do you do if you are a buyer in a seller’s market? We thought we would offer up some thoughts this morning.
Our first thought for a buyer in a seller’s market? Speed baby. yesterday while looking at homes our buyers liked all three places we showed them and put an offer down on the third home. It already had an offer that day but they were fast enough to get in the game with a competing offer.
Buyers be quick about it. Well priced homes in good condition go in days in this market. Buyers should be “pre-approved” or have cash on hand so you are ready to go. Some of our favorite buyers have lost their chance to buy a property when they hesitated, or went back up north to think about it, or just wanted to spend some time thinking about it.
(finding vacant property can be tough in these times and buyers should be ready to go when they find what they are looking for)
Should a buyer rush in every time? No way. Of course not. You need to love the place. But if you do love the place move on it.
Buyers need to look good to the seller is our next idea. When the time comes you want to make as clean an offer as possible – meaning as few contingencies as possible. If you need financing (and many of us do) get pre-approval. When you make that offer send along the pre-approval letter so the seller’s know you will be good for the money after all they are trying to decide if you are the one and it is worth taking their home off the market for you. The fewer the contingencies in your offer the better you look to the seller.
Our next idea? Buyers get “your radar up” with a good search tool. You need a search tool which ties directly to the realtors MLS (multi listing service). We have a tool (it’s free) to help you. You may not want one of the popular national online tools with time delays built-in (some of these tools get their data from feeds from the MLS and can run slow). By the time you get the information it may be too late. Let us know – we have some good search tool options for you.
(sellers seem to have buyers flocking to them in these times)
Another idea” When supplies are low you may want to make an unsolicited offer on a place not yet on the market. If you know your target neighborhood why not? We literally called and mailed each house on a target street for a buyer to find someone willing to sell.
Next idea? When making an offer in a seller’s market a buyer may use “comps” too. Most seller’s use comparable market analyses to judge the value of their property – why not buyers? A buyer may find this useful when dealing with a seller offering prices above market.
Another idea? Ask the seller if they have an appraisal. Why? Well this is another way to estimate the market value of the place. By the way, if a seller is priced too high and a prospective buyer requiring financing shows up the deal might not go because the lender is not going to say “ok” to an overpriced property. Ask for an appraisal or get one yourself – sometimes these are useful tools to talk a seller down.
(experts say this seller’s market may be with us in Naples for a while)
Buyers should be careful with counter offers in a seller’s market. When a buyer makes a counter offer to a seller they are actually saying no to the first offer. Follow along here. Let’s say you offered $900,000 for a home and the seller countered $975,000. If you counter again at $950,000 the $975,00 offer from the seller is terminated. So what? Well the so what is if you say “just kidding” and try to go back and accept the seller’s $975,000 offer the seller is not obligated to say yes. They might move on to another buyer. Lesson: if it looks Ok and the market is really tight you might go for the seller’s last offer and stop dickering. A seller’s market may not be the best times for a lot of back and forth negotiating.
Another idea for these times … Why not move inland and check out new construction? Further inland, buyer’s are finding new construction with modern floor plans and the homes are just beautiful. Buyers may give up the walk to the beach or a boat dock and endure a car drive and parking to the beach or boat – but this is probably the case for you up north as well. Moving inland may save you hundreds of thousands of dollars in some cases.
Our final idea for buyers this morning? Get a good Realtor. Last year we literally knocked on doors to see if a homeowner would sell a place to a client. Once you make an offer you will want a good negotiator on your side willing to go the extra mile – like submitting market analysis to support your offer or picking up the phone and responding quickly to both sides of the transaction.
(looking inland for new construction may be a good idea)
We hope these ideas are helpful to buyers in this market. You can get it done – just be ready, get a good realtor, use the right online search tools, get pre-approved, use comps and appraisals to your advantage and go after it.
If you would like to know more about living in Naples, Florida please talk with our team. We have toured and owned property in Naples for thirty-eight years and know we can help you out. Give us a call at 239.595.3921.
Also remember the new edition of our eBook “Understanding Naples Real Estate” is now available making predictions for the 2015 Naples real estate market as well as offering up advice to sellers and buyers. To get your free copy go to https://www.naplesbestaddresses.com/offer/ .
We hope to meet and talk with you soon,
Mark Goebel PA, Nan Goebel PA and David Goebel, PA
Co-Founders of the Naples Best Addresses team
Coldwell Banker
Mark Goebel, PA and Nan Goebel, PA
REALTOR Coldwell Banker 5th Avenue South
Mobile: 239.595.3921 239.595.3920
NaplesBestAddresses.com
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No legal, investment, or tax advice is being given in this Blog. Consult with legal, financial and tax professionals before acting on any real estate transaction. Actual real estate price and sales results are subject to market forces and are not completely predictable. The writings of this Blog are intended for the sole use of our clients.
We are pleased to announce a portion of our real estate earnings go to support the The Naples Botanical Garden, Habitat for Humanity Collier County, The Race For The Cure Citrus Ride, The Seacrest Country Day School and The Naples Winter Wine Festival.
Some of the data relating to Naples homes for sale and Naples real estate for sale on the NaplesBestAddresses.com website comes in part from the Broker reciprocity program of M.L.S. of Naples, Inc. The properties displayed here may not be all the properties available through the MLS reciprocity Program. This information is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed. Buyers and sellers are responsible for verifying all information about their purchase prior to closing.
Mark Goebel, PA is a REALTOR with Coldwell Banker on 5th avenue in Naples, Florida with 35+ years of visiting and living in Naples. After 25 years at Accenture, Mark retired as a managing director and spends his time helping non profits and building a Naples real estate team with his wife Nan. Talk to Mark and Nan about life in Naples and why they chose this place to live full-time over all others and enjoy Naples real estate.
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