We've seen 20 houses, offered and outbid on 2, we are still looking

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen at least 50 over the past few years and been outbid on maybe ten in the last year.

I actually feel better in a weird way knowing others have seen as many houses as we have! (Not OP)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You must have a very nice realtor
Ours was a such a nag, insisted on escalation clause, kept telling us that our offer was bad because it was $5k below asking price
She would have refused to even put together a low ball offers

OK? And? Why should she waste her time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You must have a very nice realtor
Ours was a such a nag, insisted on escalation clause, kept telling us that our offer was bad because it was $5k below asking price
She would have refused to even put together a low ball offers

OK? And? Why should she waste her time?

+1, it is your realtor's relationships at stake as well. She isn't going to insult the other realtor if it's clearly obvious the property is going over ask.

[Anonymous]

Done this twice now in past 20 years. First time, we looked for about a year - didn't get the house until our 8th offer. Second time, also about a year - didn't get the house until our 3rd offer. Both times we offered over asking with no contingencies. It's always been a crazy market around here for at least the last 20 years. The housing stock kind of sucks and too many people with $$ are chasing too few houses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Until your real estate agent absolutely hates you, you have not bid on enough houses, my friend.

Seriously. Your interests are not the same. Look for houses on your own without bothering them, and rope them in at the last minute for bids. It does not matter how long it takes, this is a huge commitment for YOU. Not the agent.

Oh, hell no. They are getting 2.5-3% of the sales price that is inflated partly because of their ridiculous commission. I am not paying them that to just fill out a couple of forms.

Do you expect your realtor to come with you to weekend OH? That seems ridiculous. Getting you in before the OH, absolutely their job.

OP here - that wasn't me!!

[Anonymous]

OP here. I see what's happening - you all think I've posted everything here, nope, other than 21:47 and 21:50, I've identified myself every time I've posted. Anyway, thanks for the insults!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Until your real estate agent absolutely hates you, you have not bid on enough houses, my friend.

Seriously. Your interests are not the same. Look for houses on your own without bothering them, and rope them in at the last minute for bids. It does not matter how long it takes, this is a huge commitment for YOU. Not the agent.

Oh, hell no. They are getting 2.5-3% of the sales price that is inflated partly because of their ridiculous commission. I am not paying them that to just fill out a couple of forms.

Do you expect your realtor to come with you to weekend OH? That seems ridiculous. Getting you in before the OH, absolutely their job.

Did I say anything like that? My expectation from a realtor is that he/she gets me into the houses I am interested in before the open house. They don’t get their commission for just submitting my offers as the other PP suggested.

[Anonymous]

We are putting our house on the market soon! Alexandria, walk to Metro, 5br, super cute Craftsman, likely price 1.35ish. Respond to this with an email if you are interested, OP, and i will send you info. I would LOVE to sell it fast and avoid the hassle of staging and having to make it look like no one lives there for an unknown period of time. And would consider a price reduction to avoid all that.

(It is weird that the convention is that sellers do a ton of disruptive and costly cosmetic work to get houses on the market... only to have buyers immediately change everything because naturally they have different taste. I do wish there was some way to avoid all that, since it seems kind of pointless for all involved.)

[Anonymous]

But sellers can also decide when they want people viewing their house and many won’t want people coming after work! If I sold my house I would want people coming while my kids were at school. If you want to see the house before the OH then ask your realtor to give you a heads up or leave work. I would also recommend getting a new realtor. Know two friends who bought and won bids in pocket listings their realtor got them into. The sellers didn’t want a million people walking all over their house as they had kids (my friend mentioned this).

You can also write notes in mailboxes if you’re comfortable with that. It can be a bit uncomfortable and some people might not respond, but can’t hurt? My aunt sold her home this way in a different desirable part of the country. They were about 2 years away from retirement, but decided to take the offer and ask for a rent back for a couple months so they could buy a home in cash in their new destination. Ask friends in certain neighborhoods if they have any neighbors or heard of friends wanting to sell. I would do this if I was selling my house!

Good luck, but be clear and ask your realtor to get you in early and if he/she doesn’t get a new realtor! I put in 6 offers in 2019!

[Anonymous]

You are asking for too much and offering too little. We looked at ~12-15 bid on two and got the second. We didn’t waive all contingencies but lost by $20k anyway (we had reached our budget/max) on the first. Second we ended up waiving all contingencies and went $100k over asking. We have cash for fixing major issues found on inspection because we aren’t at the very very top of our budget.

Lower your target price point so you’ve got more room to go up. So if your max is $1m look in the $800-900 range. Have your financing solid so you can waive appraisal (or have generous gap coverage). Consider a pre inspection. Offer free rent back. Hold cash back for expensive repairs and recast your mortgage if it’s not needed.

[Anonymous]

OP, unfortunately you do need to see a home within 24 hours of it being listed. This is why home buying is such a headache. You have to constantly drop everything without notice.

It sounds like you need a better realtor. Find one who can preview homes for you so you don't waste your time on homes that don't meet your requirements. The realtor needs to show you the good homes prior to the open house too.

[Anonymous]

We viewed 100 houses before got one. It was 2020. Our budget was 1.2-1.3. We looked at houses between 900 - 1.3. Outbid by 10 times. Finally got a house for 1.2, which required about 200k in fixing up, and came with a tenant living in it for another couple of months after closing.
Now all remodel is done under budget. Our house is appraised for 1.75. We are happy living here forever.

So my advise is: keep looking and keep compromising. You will get there.

[Anonymous]

We bought in 2022. Had really tight search criteria. Looked at maybe 6 houses. Bid on one that was painted ugly colors inside and out but otherwise met all our criteria (and we had a list of what we would tolerate, and ugly paint colors was our most tolerated negative). The color scared off other buyers and we were able to put a bid under asking and got the house. The painters started the day after we closed, and it's gorgeous now.

So I guess my advice is-- lock down your criteria. Lock down your list of tolerable negatives. Come up with a very well defined number for how much you can spend on repairs and renovations so you can quickly do the math. And find things that are very easy and cheap to fix but that chase away other buyers (paint, bad landscaping, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We probably looked at like 40 or 50. But they weren't all in the neighborhood we said we wanted. Ultimately we made a lowball offer on my dream house. They were offended and refused it. Didn't counter. But their realtor had told mine they HAD to move so we just waited. They lowered the price twice, and then we lowballed them again. They were so upset they basically HAD to take our lower offer that they had the washer, dryer and fridge taken out and thrown away, and they ripped out all the blooming flowers.

Wtf is wrong with the other 40-50 houses. You just cannot fathom how you would live in them or you have some crazy Wish List or they were all truly crap??? Or not actually in your budget?

We bought awhile back where there was. It much on the market not any new builds. We’ve loved our home and yard and location. We realized a couple years after buying when there was a lot in the market how slim pickings we had, but also realize show great our house and location was so weren’t bothered.

[Anonymous]

A good agent will take you to see a couple fixer uppers, well maintained homes and newer homes, so you developed a sense of valuation.

If you already have that sense and are pre-approved for loans, the. You should be able to be more productive in what you see and what you do.

Seeing 20-40 homes every other week and only bidding on two seems really inefficient. Maybe you’re not a serious buyer.