We often hear from our clients such things as ~ “I think I’ll just wait and see what happens” or “Isn’t it a buyer’s market” or “Let’s wait and see if the price goes down anymore” ~ All are credible reasons to wait in today’s real estate mark
et. But what happens when you sit on the fence for too long?
An old nursery rhyme comes to mind …
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses, And all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again!
Our buyers are obviously not living a nursery rhyme; but like Humpty the trend is to sit on the fence. The unfortunate case is as follows and actually occurred twice to two separate clients of ours last weekend…
One of our Team Members took their client Jane Buyer out to view homes for a period of 4 months. Jane Buyer wanted to be smart about her purchase and really wanted to shop around, to see ‘what’s out there’, what ‘deals’ she could find. After much research and a lot of looking, our Team Member found Jane Buyer a beautiful home that had all of the criteria she had been dreaming about…but she didn’t want to make a commitment, “quite yet”. She wanted to think it over, and our Team Member respected that. After a couple weeks of thinking it through she realized this home is truly what she was looking for and told our Team Member she was ready to make an offer! Unfortunately, when our Team Member made the call to Lisa Listing Agent, she finds out that an offer had been accepted and the home was no longer available. Jane Buyer was crushed, and back to the fence she went……
Now of course this isn’t always the case and we all know in this market a lot of homes do sit and sit and SIT on the market, but the diamonds in the rough will not. Even in a slow market a home that has curb appeal, a lot of desirable features, and is priced right will sell. The question of course is “When?”… Don’t be like Humpty and wait on the fence too long… sometimes, as a Buyer, it is wise to make that offer on the home you feel is “the one”. The crucial questions to ask are “Would I regret not buying this home” and “How would I feel if someone else got it?” Remember you don’t have to offer the full listing price; just make a respectable offer to get the negotiating started and the ball rolling with the seller…..so you don’t end up starting from scratch!
According to Sandicor’s statistics for last week (February 18th-25th 2008): 451 buyers got off the fence and purchased a single family detached home, 256 buyers purchased single family attached homes. If Jane Buyer would’ve gotten off the fence sooner, she wouldn’t have been alone!
