Multiple Offers – Only On Entry Level Homes?
July 28th, 2009 categories: Buyer Resource, Seller Resource
Lately, many of our clients have been dealing with multiple offer scenarios, and their offers have turned into counter offers highest and best requests from the sellers.. This can be extremely frustrating for buyers, but overall I think it is a good thing for the market. I believe it shows that we are at the bottom, as multiple people are overbidding properties. I suppose I am not even saying we are near the bottom, as I have seen prices start to creep up in pockets of the market, I have to say we are coming out of the bottom to a period of price increases. This seems to be due to a lot of factors; low Sonoma County Mortgage Rates, and Supply And Demand of available Real Estate on the market.
Many of our buyers are first time Sonoma County home buyers. We really like being able to help people find their first home. In a market like this, we see this as an opportunity to change your life with a well priced purchase. We love to help out in those types of situations.
The multiple offers are largely a function of affordability. With prices at historically low levels, AND mortgage interest rates also in the low 5’s (for 30 year fixed rate mortgages), we are seeing unprecedented housing affordability.
I do see this as a good thing again, showing the health of the market, and also showing that consumer sentiment has swung to a position of positivity towards the overall Real Estate Market.
We WERE seeing multiple offers in the entry level home market, NOW we are also seeing multiple offers int he mid range market…$500,000 – $900,000. This is also a good thing for the market as a whole. Some clients recently made an offer on a $700,000+/- Petaluma home only to find out another offer had just come in…the result…a highest and best situation. In the end, our original offer was near our highest and best, and all offers were rejected by the seller. Even the sellers now seem to be thinking the market is coming back. I think the mid range market stable at best and is much different than “coming back”. Those sellers may have shot themselves in the foot…at least make a counteroffer, never reject an offer outright…much less multiple offers.
In any event, I wanted to write today to let you all know that we ARE currently seeing multiple bid situations in several price ranges. This is a good thing, and hopefully a sign of things to come.
