Buyers! Should You Wait for the Market to Hit Bottom?

On Sunday I held one of my listings open, as I usually do on the weekends. And as usual, I had 5-6 buyers who love the house but are waiting to buy when the market hits bottom. A few buyers are making their move now but most are waiting. However, it occurred to me recently that each and every house offers a completely unique negotiating experience. Here's what I mean...

This is a true example of a buyer couple I worked with recently: They found 5 houses they liked equally and all of them were priced nearly the same...around $500,000. The buyers were highly qualified with a large down-payment and great credit. We submitted 5 offers simultaneously. One seller didn't even want to respond to the offer. Two sellers came back with a counter offer a few hundred dollars off of full price. Howver, two sellers came back with wonderful counter offers. We continued to negotiate with the two most-motivated sellers and the buyers struck a deal.

This experience shows that for some homes, the market will most likely go lower as their homes remains on the market. But for other homes, you can get an awesome deal now if the seller is ready to strike a great deal. We ended up negotiating a home far below the list price. The buyers felt like they were able to buy now and enjoy a home at a price that gives them equity as the market goes down. These buyers decided that they would rather be among a handful of buyers making offers with motivated sellers now; than waiting for the absolute bottom when everyone jumps into the market.