Do Buyers Ever End Buying the First House They See?
Often times, when I am house hunting with buyer clients, they will ask how many homes the average buyer sees before making a decision. It is a tough question to answer. During our depressed housing market in the later half of the first decade of the new millenium, there was so much inventory to pick from, buyers were paralyzed with indecision. Nowadays, the seller's market at the beginning of the second decade of the new millenium, there are so few houses for buyers to pick from, it seems buyers get more realistic much faster.
This morning I was happy to attend settlement with first time home buyers who literally saw one home and decided that was the one. They had been looking at homes online for months leading up to actually getting qualified for a mortgage and getting into my car to house hunt. They saw how quickly things were moving in their desired area of Culpeper.
As soon as they walked in the door, they loved the home. There was nothing that didn't seem to fit everything they wanted. The location was great, being at the end of a cul-de-sac and with a large lot. The neighborhood was smaller in size, much more to their liking. And the home was in pristine condition. They were able to look beyond paint colors that didn't suit their tastes and see the space itself.
Unfortunately, mine were not the only buyers that wanted this home. By the time we threw their hat in the ring, there were two other offers. Mutiple offers scenarios are seen in all price ranges these days. My buyers made the best offer they could and now it was time for me to use my skills to get it chosen. I had a relationship with the listing agent from a previous deal we had done. Very similar in how it played out, but the roles were reversed. I was the listing agent on a house with two offers and she brought in a third offer. Her offer ended up being countered, and ultimately, ratified, because she had a clean, well written offer. I reminded her of this and pointed out that now, the tables were turned. Sure enough, my agent reputation with her got my buyers a counter offer. Two days later, my buyers were under contract with her sellers.
Today, these one and done buyers closed on the home of their dreams. They never once doubted this was the home for them. They never saw another property. Doesn't happen like this with most buyers, but it does happen. In this very inventory limited seller's market, if a buyer sees a home they want, they need to act as soon as they can to make the deal.
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