Multiple Offers: Tips For Buying a House in a Highly Competitive Market

It’s not easy trying to buy your next home in a hot real estate market. Read our “Multiple Offers: Tips for buying a house in a highly competitive market”.

Our insider tips will give you a better chance at buying a home you love, even in a hot market.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Learn how to get pre-approved by mortgage lenders before looking for your new home.
• How to find the best Realtor to help you find the ideal home.
• Learn tips on how buyers find and buy their new homes in a seller’s hot market.
• Learn insider tips for buyers in a hot real estate market.

 

1. Get Pre-Approved for a Mortgage

 

Visit your bank and other mortgage lenders for comparison. Expect different quotes on the loan amount, interest rates, minimum down payment you must pay, and length of the loan.

Most importantly, you must get a “Pre-Approved” letter from the one you choose to work with. Forget about a worthless quick “Pre-Qualified” letter based on the little information you give to a lender that is not verified and may change by the time you apply for a mortgage.

Sellers want more guarantees that you can get a mortgage than what a Pre-Qualified letter gives.

Your Pre-Approved letter opens more opportunities for buying a home. That’s because the lender must verify all the information you provide, such as:

• Income;
• Debts;
• Credit; and
• Other information to qualify for a mortgage.

Verifying this information indicates how much of a home you can afford.

A Pre-Approved letter saves sellers time by not selling to an unqualified buyer who takes the house off the hot market during the mortgage qualification process.

Your Pre-Approved letter bears more clout over offers from buyers not holding a similar letter. This will make the difference between getting your offer on a dream home accepted or not.

Read our blog post to learn more about how to “Improve Your Chances for Home Loan Approval”.

 

2. Find the Right Realtor to Help You Find Your Dream Home

 

Looking for a house in a hot market means too much competition from other buyers. Pouring over hundreds of homes for sale in your local online Multiple Listing Service (MLS) takes too much time.

Why not work with an experienced Realtor who knows the local market to save you time at no cost? That’s right, sellers pay commissions to their listing agent who splits the commission with the agent who brings the buyer.

Once you contact a local Realtor to provide details and needs for the perfect home you seek, the Realtor does all the searching for you. This saves you lots of time!

It’s very important to find a Realtor who knows the location you want to live in. Some Realtors specialize in certain cities and neighborhoods. This means they know the area inside and out. Their inside knowledge puts you on a faster track to finding your ideal home.

Need an experienced Realtor in San Diego County? Big Block Realty offers Realtors who know every city and neighborhood throughout San Diego County. We even have franchises in Bakersfield, Inland Empire, and Sacramento to help you find a home in those locations. Contact us now to find the right Realtor for you.

 

3. Know What You Want

 

It pays to spend the time knowing the best location, home style, how many bedrooms and bathrooms, type of kitchen, rooms for a home office, entertainment, or a growing family. Do you need ample storage space? Or, a garage for two or more vehicles? How about the backyard? Need a swimming pool, tennis court, large patio, or specific landscaping?

Sitting down with your Realtor to describe your wants and needs makes the search much easier.

Big Block Realty is proud to be one of the few brokerages in San Diego County offering free use of the unique RealScout program. “RealScout Comes to San Diego to Help Home Buyers”.

 

4. “Go For It”

 

“Act fast or lose it.” These quick quotes sum up what it’s like in a hot real estate market. When you find the ideal home, you must act fast. Tomorrow it might be sold.

When you find the right home, put in your offer right away. Know your negotiating strategies and know what contingencies you want in the sales contract.

Never took a course in negotiations? Don’t know what a contingency in a contract is? That’s normal for a home buyer. That’s why working with an experienced Realtor who knows how to negotiate and what terms and conditions you want in the sales contract can help you.

Always know how high an offer you can afford. Multiple offers on the same home create a bidding war. Don’t let your emotions cloud your better judgment.

Learn about home bidding wars in this recent blog post titled: “How To Win A California Home Bidding War”.

 

Have questions?

 

5. Become a Nice Buyer

 

Nobody wants to help or sell something to a grouch. Nice buyers win over sellers. Sometimes, during a bidding war, the nicer buyer wins. Here are some tips to become a nice buyer:

• Make it easier and faster to close the sale for the seller. Like scheduling a home inspection right away;
• A good Realtor will contact the listing agent to find out what is important to the seller to prepare a better offer; and
• Write a buyer’s love letter to the seller expressing your good feelings about how well the seller maintained the home. Also, how good care you and your family will take living there. Most sellers want their loving home to go to a loving buyer.

 

6. More Tips for a Hot Seller’s Market

 

Expect multiple offers on your ideal home, as you won’t be alone appreciating its features. Here are some tips beyond what we suggested above to help you win a bidding war:

Offer a large earnest-money deposit. Sellers worry about buyers failing to qualify for a mortgage or simply backing out. Offering a larger earnest money deposit than the competing buyers gives you an edge. The seller gets more money if you back out,  resulting in the seller keeping the deposit.

Make your best offer. Multiple offers don’t leave room for lowballing and then negotiating a higher offer. Make your highest offer, the first one.

Give the seller more time to move. Sometimes, the seller needs to buy a home after the sale and the new home isn’t ready yet. Offering to give the seller more time to move (like a few days) after closing without compensation can give you an edge.

Offering to bridge the gap between sales price and appraisal. If the appraisal shows the home to be worth less than the sales price, you can walk away or negotiate to lower the sales price to its appraisal price. Include a contingency that will agree to that automatically. It will save you and the seller time.

 

Multiple Offers: Tips For Buying a House in a Highly Competitive Market – Conclusion

 

Let’s sum up our Multiple Offers: Tips for buying a house in a highly competitive market. We made six suggestions:

1. Getting a pre-approved mortgage letter;
2. Finding the right Realtor to help you find your ideal home;
3. Knowing what you want and describing it to your Realtor;
4. Acting fast or losing it when you find the right home;
5. Becoming a nice buyer makes the seller feel better about selling to you; and
6. More tips when buying in a hot seller’s market like making your best offer first, offering a larger earnest money deposit, and working with the seller to handle delays or a low appraisal.

 Want to view more tips? Read our recent blog post: “How To Successfully Buy a Home”.

Learn how to, “Improve Your Chances for Home Loan Approval”.

 

Want To Buy a Home in San Diego’s Hot Sellers’ Market from the Best Brokerage?

 

Big Block Realty was recently named Best Brokerage in San Diego and one of the Best in the Country. Read about our recent awards:

“Best 100% Commission Real Estate Broker San Diego 2022” and

“Big Block Realty Named In Top 100 RE Brokers In The United States”

Big Block Realty provides home sellers with Realtors from all parts of San Diego County. Our RealScout program helps sellers to list at the best price and makes it easier for buyers to find our sellers online.

Contact us before you list your home for sale in the greater San Diego area. As you read here, our Realtors can help you sell faster at the best price.

 

 

Steven Rich, MBA – Guest Blogger

 

 

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