Need a House Now? How to Win at This Crazy Game Called Homebuying

It used to be so simple…

You have a home. You want a different home. You contact your favorite real estate sales professional to help you sell your existing home and buy a future home, and away you went.

If you found a home to buy before you had yours under contract, maybe you’d have to write a short-term contingency into the terms of the purchase, but surely that wouldn’t hinder your ability to buy what you want.

If the market got a little competitive you would sweeten your purchase offer with a willingness to pay over the asking price along with typical seller expenses…title policy, survey, residential service contract.

You might even write a heart-warming letter about your family and how they just knew that house was meant to be theirs when they saw it. Certainly inserting photos of pets, babies and smiling children never hurt either.

Sure you might pay a little bit more upfront but the goal was to get the home you liked best in a timely manner. Get the next home under control with a contingency, sell the existing home quickly, and coordinate closing on the same day in the near future. Done, done, and done.

Hasta la vista, baby.

Here’s a big shocker … kiss that scenario good-bye!

It’s a track meet out there for homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. The declining inventory of available homes that started a few years ago has finally started making itself known in 2021. Thanks a lot, COVID!

Active listings in December 2020 went down 48.8 percent from active listings in December 2019 according to the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors. That is nothing to sneeze at for sure!

This overall decline continues to compound and worsen. Fewer and fewer homes are on the market while more and more active buyers are looking.

New home construction is slammed with business. Builders and developers can’t keep up with the demand for more developments and more homes.

Whether it’s COVID fears or the fact that they won’t be able to find a suitable replacement home, typical sellers aren’t putting their homes on the market as often as in previous years.

Prices? Who cares about prices! The decline of inventory is price-agnostic that’s for sure. $200’s? $500’s? $750’s? $1 million-plus? All price ranges are being impacted by this inventory crisis.

Need to sell your home before you can buy another home? Good luck with that. Sellers scoff at contingency agreements these days.

So what can be done?

There’s no magic pill to solve this issue. Sellers are going to have to get back into the home-selling game.

Buyers and their agents are going to need to get even more creative with offers. Not everyone can pay cash. Not everyone can pay more than asking. Not everyone can close and give long-term leaseback options … but it doesn’t hurt.

Recently I’ve seen high-end homes hit the open market and within a few “F5” keystrokes on the computer, the listing goes from Active to Pending … no option period, no multiple-offers, and no best-and-final scenarios. That’s crazy! But it’s happening — and in all price points, too.

Don’t lose hope.

“Don’t get excited until you get the keys or give the keys.”

That’s what I tell all my clients whether they are first-timers or multi-timers. It’s easy to let emotions take over and allow you to become too happy or too sad during the homebuying process.

Have all your ducks in a row. Make sure you have a talented real estate sales professional. Make sure your lender approval letter is prepared. Be willing to be malleable when it comes to a quick-or-longer close date, and be flexible with offering up to 90 (yes I said NINETY) day leaseback at minimum charge to the sellers so they can then find a home for themselves.

One helpful suggestion is to have your local lender contact the listing agent of the home you are hoping to buy once you’ve submitted your offer. Not only does that show to the listing agent or seller that you are qualified, it shows that you have a strong local lender that will fight for you just like your local real estate sales professional.

Really understand what the “must-have” and the “would-like-to-have” items you would like in a home … because life is about trade-offs, you’re not going to get everything you want.

Hang in there. It could be worse…we could all be in a state where home inventory is high because everyone is fleeing those states … ick!

Share your stories.

Feel free to share any tips or stories you might have experienced in the comments below. We’d love to hear about what you’re seeing in your area!