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How Could That Home Go Pending When You’re Ready to Make an Offer?
You might lose that home if you wait to make an offer.
It’s a fine line to walk when looking at homes to buy in Sacramento and feeling the urge to make an offer. The dilemma is when you spot a home you like, should you make an offer with the possibility that if you keep looking you might find something better, which means you would have to cancel a contract? Or, do you wait to make an offer until you are absolutely certain you’ve viewed every single home that might fit your parameters, opening the window of opportunity for another buyer to step in before you can act? It’s a tough place to be. Moreover, may I suggest that it’s not really a good idea to look at homes if you’re indecisive.
Even some veteran Sacramento Realtors are struggling with their buyers. I followed up on a showing of a duplex in Carmichael to find out if the agent would share his buyer’s thoughts with me. I always like to pass on feedback to my sellers, keep them in the loop about what’s happening, and answer any possible questions that might arise from the showing. The agent said the buyers were interested, but they had other homes they wanted to see over the weekend, which was 4 days away. Why do buyers think they have 4 days to look at homes in Sacramento?
We have limited inventory in Sacramento. The principle for a seller’s market in Sacramento is when you spot a home you like, buy it. Right then. Immediately. Make an offer. Commit. There is no time to soak in a bubble bath and contemplate your place in the world, wondering what would it would be like if we were all living on a blade of grass and not planet Earth. Chop, chop, people, pen to paper or mouse to screen.
I don’t enjoy informing buyer’s agents that we are in pending status now and they can only submit a back-up offer. Another agent texted late yesterday that he had just scanned an offer to send to me on the same duplex in Carmichael. Because of the way texts work, I could see that he had texted me a day earlier at the same time, asking questions about the duplex on behalf of his buyers. I pointed that out, that he had contacted me 24 hours earlier and let him know that yes, the property was pending. Maybe he was a part-time agent who could only work after business hours, I dunno.
His response was he had told me he was sending an offer 24 hours ago and it was STILL today damnit, even though much later in the evening. As though somehow he imagined we would wait for a less-than-list-price offer from him, because I had inquired as to the amount of the offer and suggested that he bump it up. He didn’t bump it. He didn’t even send it. If I had a dollar for every time an agent said he was sending an offer and didn’t . . .. He wanted to know how high the winning offer was, and I instead asked if his offer was still less than list price. Yes, it was. Well, then, day late, dollar short.
If you don’t make an offer, you can’t buy the home. If you don’t eat yer meat, you can’t have any pudding.
Don’t Shoot Yourself in the Foot When You Make an Offer on a Sacramento Home
Buyers who make an offer on a new listing should discuss the price with a Realtor.
The trouble with making an offer on a home is many buyers judge the value of the home by the sales prices of surrounding homes and not the comparable sales. They do not seem to understand that the gray house with the remodeled kitchen and additional 500 square feet is worth many thousands more than the home they can really afford to buy, which is the brown house, two blocks over, without the remodeled kitchen and 500 square feet less.
You might read this and say to yourself: it makes sense, why doesn’t it make sense to the buyer? And it’s because they don’t look at it this way. They see 6 or 7 homes, all of which vary in size, configurations, location and condition, and in their mind those homes are all the same. They are homes for sale in Sacramento, and all they have to do is pick one and make an offer for less. I know agents are chuckling?over this scenario but it’s how buyers’ minds work. I hear it day after day from buyer’s agents who call on my listings.
I can also understand why buyer’s agents might not want to discourage them because to do so could alienate the buyer from the agent. Nobody wants to be told they don’t understand what they are doing. Agents often will urge them to make an offer, any offer, because once they get a signature on the contract, they hope the negotiations will continue.
But you can take a brand new listing in Sacramento that is attracting a lot of attention and buyers will still think it is OK to offer less. The problem is the seller is very unlikely to accept such an offer. Even if the buyer were to make an offer for FULL list price, the seller might not even take that kind of offer, and believe it or not, a seller is not required to. Nope, no law.
Often I get buyer’s agents who say their buyer wants to make an offer just prior to an open house because they are worried another buyer at the open house will want their home and swipe it. Yet, they often make an offer that the seller cannot or will not accept. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
Bottom line, if the buyer wants to make an offer, it helps to determine market conditions, assess the competition for the home, and best of all, to consider the comparable sales.
