We – like many communities around the country – are in a sellers’ market.
If you’ve discovered that finding the perfect vacation cabin or second home in the Smokies hasn’t been the dream you imagined this year, don’t fret – you aren’t alone.
We have had a shortage of properties for sale this year. Even now, there are only about 1,000 active market listings for sale in our local Great Smoky Mountains MLS association. At the same time, we have seen our number of buyers increase, but with less properties to consider, it’s definitely driven the demand, and the sales prices, up.
However, if you’ve found a property your heart is set on, there’s hope. There are things you can do and ways you can approach the seller with an offer that will make them choose yours over everyone else’s. Here are few ways you can make the successful bid.
Be prepared to go above the asking price. This is just the reality in a sellers’ market. When supply isn’t keeping up with demand, the market value – what someone is willing to pay – inevitably goes up. We’ve seen a number of properties on the market sell for an amount above asking price, particularly when the property is in what agents will call a “multiple offer” situation. This is where the seller has received more than one offer, and instructed the agent to give all of the people making offers the chance to submit the very best offer they can within a set amount of time (usually a day or two). So if you had offered a little less than asking but someone else offered asking price or even just a couple of thousand dollars more, it’s more likely they will take that bid over yours.
Do anything you can to make your offer the most appealing. Going above asking price, particularly in a multiple offer situation, isn’t a guarantee you will win the bid. What matters the most is which offer looks to have the strongest chance of making it to closing. Can you buy the property with cash? If you can, that is usually the offer that will win. If not, then you will need to consider some other ways to make the offer more appealing. Get prequalified with a lender who will provide a letter. These days, lenders can get prequalification within five minutes, and most have an app where you can do it from the ease of your cell phone. Have a larger down payment or offer a higher escrow. Agree to take the property “as-is.” “As-is” is a real thing that happens frequently these days, but it doesn’t mean you’re stuck with the property if there’s something seriously wrong. You can still order a home inspection and go through the normal procedures, and if your inspector finds a problem that the two parties can’t resolve a way to fix, you can still will walk away from the purchase. Most sellers and their agents understand that if it is a serious issue with the property, it will have to be addressed if you decide not to buy the property after all. So that tends to make the seller a little more open to negotiating the repairs for those types of issues. And lastly…
Don’t wait to make the offer if it’s the one you really want. This is the hardest part of the home search for many buyers. Buying a home or cabin is a big decision and most people, understandably, want to take some time to think on the decision before they make an offer. Impulsive buying really goes against human nature, and rightly so. Unfortunately though, time is of the essence these days. While you’re sleeping on it, someone else is making an offer that could be accepted by the seller. It’s not uncommon for a buyer to miss out on the cabin or home they really want because they didn’t want to make an offer immediately.
The bottom line is, it’s a sellers’ market and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.
Going into the home search with that understanding in mind will make the process of finding a home in a sellers’ market much less stressful for you and give you the edge in making the best, most attractive offer you can in order to win the bid for the home or cabin you really want.
