A home comes on the market. It’s on 4 or 5 days and it appears that there is not momentum towards multiple offers. Here’s a scenario I’ve seen a gazillion times over the last 20 years, and almost exclusively with first time buyers when I show them the house. Buyer likes the house. Buyer thinks the spouse should see it. 3 days later…buyer’s spouse see’s it. Buyer and spouse likes the house.

Buyer asks “What’s the next step?” 

I say “Read the disclosures and get an approval from your lender”. The disclosures are typically online and, in my experience, the lender can produce a pre-approval in about an hour. Two days later…buyer has some questions about the disclosures, hasn’t connected with the lender.

Buyer says “What’s the next step?” Again.

I say “Write an offer”.

This may come as a shock to some of you, but when a realtor answers the question “What’s the next step?” with “Write an offer”…or words to that effect, the buyer’s response is often not too different than if I had responded by telling a really vulgar, profane joke…or if I willfully insulted the buyer’s Mother or something.

“Wr, wr, write an offer!?!?!? (They now are repeating the obscene vulgar joke!) Typically, I tell them this: Finding a house you like and not having any competition is a good thing. Mutiple offer scenarios are common again around here and this place is lacking other fins in the water. The single most important thing, if you like it, is to get it away from competition. You’re protected by the contingencies in your contract. All those things you’re worrying about, you can worry about them in escrow. If those worries get too overwhelming and the property has too many issues, you can back out under said contingency. Getting the home off the market is priority number 1.

Know what usually happens? The buyer stalls for 4 or 5 more days, wants to go see it again at the upcoming Sunday open house, and the calls and says “We’re ready!” At this point I call the listing agent to tell him/her that the buyer’s would like to write an offer… and he/she say’s:

“That’s great! Funny too that I just got a call from Joe Blo and A&B Realty…and Joe’s clients are writing too.”

I’m sure you think I’m exaggerating or just flat making this up! No, I’m not…this scenario happens all the time in my experience. As an agent, it makes me crazy! Of course it doesn’t always happen, but it happens enough that it’s aftertaste is clearly remembered! If you see a place that you like…jump on it! Get it away from potential competition! Your leverage negotiating is obviously SO much greater without competition! Avoid sneaking up on a listing, advance boldly, because it very well will save you plenty of money.

So, you spend months and months looking, trying to find just the right house. During that time you see, maybe, 50 or 60 homes and you fine tune your requirements down to a fine point. You figure you’re compromising on many things but the market seems to be warming up to a very great degree and that gives you some motivation. After rejecting house after house…you see a place that actually has possibilities! You can live in this place! What do you do now? Quite often, in my experience, you find enough fault with the place that you talk yourself out of it!

“Well, I’m just not sure about that location”. “It may be too far from work”. “Can I really afford that?” What I usually see happen is the buyer exhausts themselves with all this and eventually succumbs to the process…and they take the plunge. The plunge can also be a process of it’s own. It’s common again in this market for multiple offers to be the rule and once that common denominator has been established the buyer has to decide how aggressive they will be in writing an offer. At first the offer tends to be kind of conservative. It may not go over asking, or it may not have the most favorable terms for the seller. If the buyer misses the mark on the offer, they tend to get a little more aggressive the next time out…and again the next time, and the next time…etc. The point is that there are mutiple opportunities to plunge along the way to ratifying.

There is one group, however, that has a very high propensity to never take the plunge. It’s the entry level buyer who has in his or her mind what they want and finds that dream at odds with the reality of home buying on the Peninsula. Here’s some unfortunate truth, if your qualified to $550,000 the chances of you being able to buy a minimum 3 bedroom, 2 bath single family home in Foster City, Belmont, San Carlos are very, very slim. You can do it in San Mateo…but you’re going to be on the east side of 101. If you want a single family house and your qualified for $375,000 you need to consider Daly City, San Bruno or Redwood City…and you better be ready for iffy neighborhoods and fixer uppers.

Here’s the thing, there’s always options. If you can’t find a house you like, buy a condo or townhouse. Why? Because buying is always better than renting. Take the plunge on something because it doesn’t make sense to keep providing for the landlord’s retirement instead of your own.