Tips for Buying a New Listing in Sacramento

Listen to your agent about making an offer on a new listing in Sacramento

Home buyers tend to pay a lot of attention to the days on market, which doesn’t always mean anything except when the home is a new listing in Sacramento. When the home is a new listing in Sacramento, the days on market, regardless of market conditions, beg for a different offer strategy. That strategy says if the price is fair, showings are high, and the buyer needs to buy that home, the best move is not to try to negotiate.

Buyer’s agents sometimes take a cavalier attitude. They say the buyer will learn a lesson when the buyer loses the house, and that’s why sometimes it takes more than one offer to buy a home. If the buyer refuses to take his or her agent’s advice, the agent will just look for the next house. It doesn’t always matter to the agent which house the buyer ends up buying — not like it does to the buyer — because the agent will get paid either way.

I am often amazed when a new listing in Sacramento is on the market for a few days, and the buyer tries to negotiate on the price, especially when the price is fair. It’s not always a multiple-offer situation that will kill the buyer’s offer. It’s not like the seller is sitting on an offer and shopping it, hoping to get a higher offer, like some buyers erroneously believe. The problem that arises is when the offer is less than satisfactory to the seller, and the seller prepares a counter offer. Whole different scenario.

Agents will sometimes suggest to the listing agent that the buyer is open to a counter offer, which they really should not do as it undermines fiduciary. But even so, the problem with a counter offer is that counter offers eat up precious time. They are not instant. It can take a seller 24 hours to sign a counter offer. Then, there could be a time delay with sending the counter to the buyer’s agent, and the buyer’s agent can take more time to deliver the counter to the buyer. It is not considered final until the listing agent receives the counter offer back fully executed.

During this time period, another offer could come arrive. By necessitating a counter offer, the buyer just opened a window of opportunity for another buyer to submit an offer. A better offer. Perhaps with more suitable financing, a bigger down payment and best, no hesitation to show the seller that the buyer really wants that home. The seller is free, prior to delivery, to withdraw the counter offer and, sometimes, that’s exactly what sellers do. And buyers have done it to themselves. Just food for thought the next time you spot a new listing in Sacramento that you might want to buy.