a little update.
this time I will use concrete numbers as this will be more illustrative.
wife and I dutifully go to open houses every Sunday 1-4pm.
we had originally budgeted $900-950K and below (in order to go under the conforming amount of $625K) and get the best mortgage rates. We could borrow more but don’t want to.
we found out that we don’t like anything at this price range.
So we started checking out pricier houses a couple of weeks ago.
We had been going without an agent but met one who is very eager to show us some local properties. He showed us properties running about $1 to 1.1 million. My wife love them. This agent asked us to place bid of $25-50K over asking price. He thinks this will give us the best chance.
I am reluctant to do this b/c this sounds like a game. Also this requires stretching the budget.
Wife and I decided to wait b/c we saw how crowded the open houses are – market is likely very heated.
To confirm our suspicion, our agent let us know the result of the properties we are interested in.
property 1. Asking $1055K. Sold in 4 days after accepting bid (we drove by and verified this. Likely all cash and no contigency)
property 2. Asking $1050K. Sold in 6 days at $1062 (seller agent is partner of our RE agent so he got the scoop).
property 3. Asking $975. In escrow after 3 days. not sure of amount.
we think we are better of waiting till fall. We will still be searching but it’s looking like 2005 all over again.
