HELP in this crazy housing market

Inventory for homes is at a historical low, nationwide. It is especially so in the Tri-Cities, Washington. This means it is a great time to sell your home, and a challenging time to purchase a new one.

A great tip is to get a Realtor on your side to navigate it all. 

Thinking you can save a buck by going for sale by owner would be doing a great disservice to your bottom line and your sanity. The reason is that when your home is published on the MLS with professional photos, and your agent markets your home, ALL Realtors in the MLS have immediate access to your home and its details -as well as their clients that have been set up in the system for automatic notifications. Once the home goes “live”, there will be chaos.  Your listing agent’s phone will be blowing up with people calling to schedule showings and to get information. Hopefully your agent will have made you go to grandma’s house for the weekend so she can let people get in all weekend without you needing to clean, pack kids and dogs up etc. Then you will likely have a pile of offers that come in.  Your agent will help organize and present them all to you so you can make the best decision for your family.  Your agent will then hold your hand through the inspection, appraisal and any other bumps that might come up until closing.  Perhaps your home will not end up with multiple offers to begin with, in which case your agent will help you with a strategy to get the offers in.

As a Buyer in this market, you need to be prepared to possibly be beat up a little bit. If your maximum price you can go to is $400,000 you might need to be looking in the $350,000 range so you can make an offer over asking if you really want the house.  Other strategies might be waiving inspections (which I don’t recommend), using an appraisal gap addendum (this tells the sellers that if there is a bidding war and the home does not appraise that you are willing to pay cash at closing up to a certain amount to make up for the gap). You might need to give a little bit more earnest money.  Maybe tighten your inspection period.  Be mentally prepared to not get a house.  Keep trying though, because I guarantee that the house that is meant to be yours is around the corner.

I have predictions on what the local housing market will be doing and also in the new construction realm. If you’d like to discuss more call Lexi. 509.222.9612