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How to Tell if You’re Not Ready to Buy a House
While few agents are in the business of talking people out of buying a house, some buyers are not ready to buy a house. Oh, a buyer might think she is ready but down deep she is not. For starters, if you do not have a preapproval letter, you might not be ready to buy a house. This is assuming, of course, you are obtaining financing and not paying cash. Or, perhaps your benefactor is buying the house on your behalf, in which case, no preapproval required.
Another way to tell that you are not ready to buy a house is if you find major flaws in every house you look at with your agent. Enough serious drawbacks to know that none of the houses you viewed for the past couple of weeks fit what you desire. In that event, you should reassess with your agent your priorities. Are you looking for a unicorn house? That could be a sign that you need to design and build your own house.
Few houses are perfect, except, of course, the home you build yourself. Most buyers make concessions because they know they will not find everything on their list. If you want to buy a house with a view, for example, you might need to give up another requirement to get that view. Or be willing to make upgrades to outfit the house the way you want it.
Some buyers cannot find anything to buy in their price range or they harbor unrealistic expectations about what they can get for their money. They might spot a short sale, for example, that is severely underpriced because the listing agent is an idiot. Then, they take that particular listing and fixate on it, hoping to find another priced the same way. Which they won’t because that listing is not a “real” listing.
Another way to know a buyer is not ready to buy a house is the cold feet syndrome. Especially after going into contract to buy a house. Some buyers develop cold feet within a few days. Other buyers can make it all the way to loan docs before they freak out. If you have misgivings or an inner voice pulling you in another direction, you might not be ready to buy a house.
Just last month I encountered an odd situation. I sold a bungalow near downtown Sacramento to four different sets of buyers. Each went into contract and each group canceled without provocation. That poor seller. I felt a lot of empathy for him. Because there was no explanation. Other than the fact we can’t pick our buyers, that’s the buyer’s agent’s job, and somehow every single one of those buyer’s agents also failed.
Most committed home buyers who are ready are very excited. They are jazzed and ready to go. It is not unusual to fall in love with house after house and have a hard time deciding between a handful of homes because they are all so gorgeous. So many of those homes fit the bill of wants and needs. There is anticipation that the next house will be “the one.” Buyers who are ready can’t stop talking about their purchase.
If you feel so-so about it and are not consumed by a passionate driving force to settle down in your own house, you might not be ready to buy a house. That’s OK, too. Your Realtor is your advocate.
Do Not Sit on a Seller’s Counter Offer in This Sacramento Market
Buyers who deliberate too long over a seller’s counter offer could lose the house.
Many people selling homes in Sacramento do not want to issue a seller’s counter offer to a buyer. Some of these people think that buyers should instinctively know what they want. I will draw a counter offer over some of the tiniest things that need clarification or correction in a purchase contract, and you know why? Because the tiniest things can mushroom into big honkin’ headaches. Headaches happen due to ambiguity. Want to hear another reason for a seller’s counter offer? It lets me tell the next buyer’s agent who calls that we have a counter offer out but they have a small window to take this home away from that the buyer.
How can they do that when the buyers have a seller’s counter offer? It’s easy, because until the buyers sign the counter offer, the sellers are free to sell to anybody else they choose. The minute the Sacramento listing agent receives the signed seller’s counter offer, all parties are in contract. You know who wants a house so badly it hurts? The buyer who hears there is a counter offer out. Especially when that buyer is a position to swoop in to steal it. Everybody wants what somebody else wants. Law of human nature.
My typical method of operation involves sending out a counter offer to a buyer and giving that buyer 3 days to respond. If the buyer takes the full 3 days, maybe we’ll sell the property to a higher bidder on day #2. Not to mention, buyers don’t like to be pushed. They like to have the appearance of time on their side. No pressure. Their own agent should tell them time is of the essence and urge them to quickly act. Do they? I don’t know.
Often, when we employ this strategy, the buyer’s agent is a bit dismayed when suddenly the seller withdraws the counter offer. They say, what? Hey! My buyers were thinking about signing! Not my problem. The way to withdraw a seller’s counter offer is basically two-fold. First, the listing agent informs the buyer’s agent that the seller has revoked the seller’s counter offer, immediately. I do this via text and email. The next step? Get the Withdrawal of Offer (or the weirdly named WOO) signed by the sellers, followed by delivery to the buyer’s agent.
For example, a buyer’s agent insisted this week that we cooperate with her buyers and make the transaction work, damnit. In her mind, I guess. In my mind I don’t have to cooperate with anybody. If my sellers want to make the transaction work with that buyer, we’ll do it. If not, I’ll do something else. That something else generally involves selling to another buyer who doesn’t need a lot of time to ponder whether to buy the home at list price or better. I have fiduciary to my seller. I’m very clear on that aspect.
Best Tip for Winning the Offer in Today’s Sacramento Housing Market
Winning the offer to buy a home in Sacramento does not need to be overly complicated.
When I see buyers winning the offer in today’s housing market in Sacramento, it’s generally because they have done one simple thing. And I often share this one simple thing with their buyer’s agent when they call to ask if I have any offers. It’s as though they don’t want to write an offer until I do have an offer. Every buyer’s agent pretty much is trying to get “a deal” for their buyers when they should be worried about getting their buyer into escrow, period. It’s hard right now to buy a home in Sacramento. Don’t make it any harder than it needs to be.
I’ve noticed an attitude with my sellers that seems to repeat itself. So I share this discovery with my sellers, and even when I tell them what’s going to happen and why, they are still surprised when it happens. I can accurately predict it because lately I see the same thing happen over and over. This is when a home goes on the market on Friday. The buyer notices we have an open house scheduled for Sunday and quite rightly begins to worry about the winning the offer. The buyer’s focus, though, tends to be on how can we buy the home right now, this very minute, rather than what can we do to ensure we are winning the offer.
Because a buyer probably cannot buy the home right now, this very minute. There is no guarantee the seller won’t take the offer, but when the seller has hired an experienced listing agent like me, for example, I will suggest the seller wait until the open house. The seller is free to disregard my advice, but that doesn’t happen very often. Agents who take fiduciary seriously will want to expose the home to the largest pool of buyers possible, which tends to ensure the highest price for the seller.
However, the one thing home buyers can do to maximize chances of winning the offer is to write the offer the minute they know they want to buy the house. It could be while they are walking up the steps to open the door. It could happen when they enter the back yard or when they get back home. But the second they know they want to buy the house, write the offer. Be the first offer. You don’t have to be the strongest offer if you are the first offer. Because the first offer is the offer the seller will think about all day on Friday, all day on Saturday and all day on Sunday.
Why? Because all of the other buyers will wait until after the open house to submit an offer. They wait because they are concerned the listing agent will “shop the offer.” Well, a good listing agent is shopping the offer when all of the offers are compared to each other after the open house. Doesn’t matter if it happens before or after. Further, there will be last-minute buyers who called their agent brother-in-law in another city to write an offer after the open house, and those offers will be sloppy, impersonal. Yes, the first offer price might be countered to be more in line with the other offers. But the first offer has the edge. Think about it, is all I’m saying. Don’t be afraid to be the first offer.
