Being a home buyer in today’s competitive real estate market is not for the faint of heart. Demand is high for affordable (and not so affordable) housing. However, each community has their own threshold, in Burbank the under $750,000 real estate market is on fire, in La Crescenta it’s under $900,000, in La Canada and Pasadena, homes priced under $1.5m are flying off the shelf, in Glendale under $1m. Not to say that the higher price ranges aren’t moving, they are but just not faster than the speed of light. So what’s a Los Angeles home buyer to do?
- Buyers need to be prepared to view the home at the seller’s preferred time
- Los Angeles home buyers often need to be prequalified or double ap (application)
with the listing agent’s preferred lender - Buyers’ are often asked to waive their appraisal contingency
However agreeing to the above terms is just a minimum. I have clients with 40% down who are in a position to waive a loan and appraisal contingency and recently made this strong over asking price offer and they unfortunately lost out. It’s a tough market out there for home buyers and their real estate agents.
It’s not just the buyer who has to jump through hoops, each listing agent has their own offer guidelines. In this email age, some listing agents demand that all offers be delivered to their office by a set time. And often when we call the listing agent, they not only don’t take our call, they don’t return it either.
Advice for buyers:
- Work with a local established full time real estate agent who is on the ball.
- Be patient, jump through the silly hoops.
- Don’t wait to see new listings; time is a home buyer’s worst enemy. The longer a home is on the market the more opportunity there is for more and more buyers to jump in the fray.
- Write strong offers and sweeten the pot (call me and I will explain).
