Our real estate market is a bit imbalanced, favoring sellers more than buyers for the moment. Now personally as an agent I prefer the market more balanced as it encourages better behavior from both buyers and sellers. As soon as the table tilts in one direction or another it seems that some of the favored party take it as an opportunity to misbehave.
I spent a fair amount of the 4th of July weekend working with condo buyers. We looked at a selection of condos and at the end of the day wrote an offer on one of them. A nice unit in a preferred location, with granite counters, hardwood floors, finished lower level, backing up to a few trees and with a reasonable HOA fee. But the one thing lacking was closed sales that supported the asking price. Couple that with the fact that the home had been on the market for 5 months when the competition was mostly selling within 1-2 weeks and our offer was influenced accordingly. So we started perhaps a bit lower than the sellers might have liked, but not at a really low price, but within a counter's counter of hitting the target price we had for the home.
But instead, we got the virtual finger, a counter at full list price. Hmm, that wasn't expected, but the buyers still loved the place so they bumped up their offer to within 10k of asking price. And then we heard crickets. Communication from the other side wasn't good at all and it was taking some pushing to get a response from the other side. Finally a response arrived and this time there was some movement by the sellers to meet the buyers. But there was a problem, with the 36 hours that it had taken to get some cooperation from the sellers, the buyers had had more time to assess the home and decide that maybe 3 floors of living space weren't optimal after all. They know longer loved the condo and it was time to move on.
Another batch of showings Monday that included a For Sale By Owner. That one was almost over before it started due to the insistence that everyone had to take off their shoes. Fine for most of us, but Mr. Buyer has bad knees and bending to take off his shoes without a place to sit was a real problem. The condo was empty but fortunately the seller produced a stool and problem solved. The condo was a bit on the small side, but ranch style with no stairs, very affordable and immaculately kept moved it to the top of the list. An offer was written within a couple of hours and delivered to the seller.
She insisted that nothing would be accepted until her attorney had reviewed the standard MLS purchase contract we delivered. And since it was a holiday weekend, of course the attorney wasn't available until Wednesday. So again, we were forced to wait rather than have a quick negotiation. And when we finally got the response, the seller had basically attempted to add some punitive language that isn't the norm for our area. If the buyer's home didn't close as scheduled, forfeit the earnest money AND be subject to levies by the seller for any other incurred costs. That was a deal breaker, and again, combined with the long wait and that love for the condo wasn't strong enough to overcome the seller created problems. Game over, the buyers didn't love the condo any longer.
Bottom line, hot or cold market, if you've got an offer in hand, ESPECIALLY when you've got an empty home as both these sellers did, it's beneficial to keep the ball moving quickly and get the buyers under contract before they fall out of love with your home. Either of these deals COULD have happened if the deal had been struck within the first 24 hours. It was the stretching out that gave the buyers time to fall out of love.
Ready to talk about buying or selling a Warren County area home? Just call 513-520-5305 or email Liz@LizSpear.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
Liz and Bill aka BLiz
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