What to do … 

If you have dreams of buying a new home, there is a method to the bidding war madness. The Wistrick Team knows how to strategically write offers that make it to the top of the pile and will coach you through. The key is having all your ducks in a row BEFORE shopping begins. Get your financing ready to go with the appropriate approvals (no longer the basic pre-approval letter), sell your current home first if required by your mortgage lender, have a home inspector and/or contractor lined up to support a very short due diligence period, and much more. There’s an entire process that we’ll guide you through, don’t worry. Yes, it can be done and we have won roughly 75% of all offers that we’ve written for our buyers.

How to win …

As I always say, experience matters. So does your Realtor’s reputation. The Wistrick Team has great connections with other agents and teams. We collaboratively network with other agents to see if they have upcoming listings for our buyers (and vice versa) before they hit the market. If our client falls in love with a listing that is publicly advertised on MLS, we spring into action by writing an offer with terms most attractive to a seller. Again, there’s a high likelihood that we know the listing agent, so our good relationship will go far. 

How to budget …

The biggest tragedy we’ve seen so far are buyers who didn’t pull the trigger this time last year. Now they find themselves in a pickle because comparable homes are selling for $50K+ more in today’s market. Real estate analysts are predicting that by the end of this year, inventory may start to climb back up; however, pricing will not decline. In other words, the prices you see today will keep rising. That said, waiting doesn’t do you any favors. But the good news is that if you have a home to sell first, you should be seeing record-breaking profit that can then be put toward a higher sales price on your new home. Combined with lower interest rates still in effect, making a move might be more affordable than you think.

Why DIY doesn’t work …

1. Some buyers think they are being strategic by dropping their agent, or maybe they just enjoy DIY. The problem is that unrepresented buyer offers are typically uninformed and/or uncompetitive. Because listing agents are swamped with plenty of other offers to choose from, these offers are often tossed out of consideration.
2. You run the risk of significantly overpaying because Zillow is not an accurate source for comps (this has happened a lot recently).  
3. Most homes only sit on the market for a couple days at most, so if you don’t have a Realtor booking your showing appointments, you might not get inside the home before it goes under contract. 

Yes, you can still win even in this crazy market! You just have to be with the right team! Know someone complaining about losing out over and over again? Do them a solid—refer them to The Wistrick Team. We promise, they will wish they had been working with a true pro sooner!