I’m super excited for our first open house today at 1021 S Ridgeley. It’s a 3 bed, 3 bath completely remodeled house in move-right-in condition in a great central location on a quiet tree-lined street. The garage has a bathroom, which makes it partially on its way to being converted to living space. The living room opens to the dining room, which makes for perfect entertaining. The kitchen has so much storage and a center island, all set up for lots of cooking. The bedrooms are a nice size. It’s rare to find a house this pretty in the price point and so this one is a super attractive offering!
It’s fascinating to me that on many properties, whether representing buyer or seller, we have a buyer interested in buying and a seller interested in selling…but the buyer and seller are a bit apart and not able to come to an agreement on price. On two properties it’s a 75,000 difference. On one it’s a 50,000 difference. On the fourth it’s a 100,000 difference. The sellers’ perspective is that the difference in price borrowing that amount of money is minimal per month and it makes no sense for the buyer to lose a house for that small monthly amount. The buyers’ perspective is that there’s a price that feels right and they don’t want to pay monthly increments for years to increase the price more than their comfort level.
I recently bought a property myself. While I was bidding, I had no idea if there were other offers or what they were. I made an aggressive offer because I wanted to buy the property. The seller accepted my offer and like all buyers, I wondered if I overpaid; there was no way for me to know. Last week I went on a listing appointment where the seller told me he wrote an offer on the property I bought. And only then, 6 weeks after my offer got accepted, did I discover that I didn’t overpay and I did what I needed to do to get the property. It’s always that way. There’s no way to know if we’re overpaying or we’re paying the right amount until weeks post purchase. From doing this for 15 years now, I find that my experience is typical. There’s fear at the time of writing the offer and satisfaction after purchase, when it becomes evident that the price was right. There’s no way to get to satisfaction without fear; it’s inherent in the process.
Seeing so many standstills today, I think buyers are smart to ask themselves if they’re truly ok if someone else were to come along and outbid them and they’d lose the property. We see so many people with regrets and that’s what needs to drive the offer price. I think sellers need to ask themselves if they’re truly ok waiting for a better offer and also if it might be worth their while to continue to enhance or to improve their property to have people offer a higher price for it.
From a buyers standpoint, there is such tight inventory right now and it’s so hard to find a great property to buy. From a seller’s standpoint, open houses are back and buyers are now trolling through every available property and weighing options, choices, and pricing so offers are more calculated and educated than they were in recent lockdown days.
From my standpoint as an agent, every seller believes it’s a sellers market, but it really is a free market with options and choices at both ends. Houses are sold when both buyer and seller agree on a price. When both buyer and seller agree on a price, it’s magic and when the sale closes, it’s happily ever after. But sometimes there’s discomfort to push through at both ends to get to the rainbow moment.
My son got engaged this week and I’m super excited to welcome my future daughter in law to our family! There’s something thrilling about experiencing imminent new beginnings with hopes and dreams for the future… I can’t wait to see what the future holds for the hardworking, earnest, sweet young couple!
Wishing all an incredible weekend!
Xoxxooo,
Sheri
