THE BEST LAS VEGAS PROPERTIES
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How To Beat Out Others In A Hot Market |
We are in a
market here in Las Vegas that is unlike any place in the world. The past couple of years have been frustrating
to many hopeful homebuyers. There are too few homes available, and the good
ones are snapped up in a hurry! There is also the new trend of vertical
construction of high-rise apartments. Often you will find yourself in a
situation where we make an offer on a home a client wanted to buy, but someone
else got it! This is both disappointing and frustrating to both the client and
the agent. These suggestions will give you an advantage when the property you
want comes along and you have made the decision to buy.
PRE-APPROVAL
Do you want
to get the best house you can for the least amount of money? Then make sure you
are in the strongest negotiating position possible. You see, price is only one
bargaining chip in the negotiations, and not necessarily the most important
one. Often other terms, such as the strength of the buyer or the length of
escrow, are critical to a seller.
Buyers get
"prequalified" by a lender. This means that you spend a few minutes
on the phone with a lender who asks you a few questions. Based on the answers,
the lender pronounces you "prequalified" and issues a certificate
that you can show to a seller. Sellers are now aware that such certificates are
WORTHLESS, and here's why! None of the information has been verified!
Oftentimes unknown problems surface! Some of the problems include recorded
judgments, child support payments due, glitches on the credit report due to any
number of reasons both accurately and inaccurately, down payments that have not
been in the clients' bank account long enough, etc.
So the way to
make a strong offer today is to get "pre-approved". This happens
AFTER all information has been checked and verified. You are actually APPROVED
for the loan; the only loose end is the appraisal on the property you want to
buy. This process takes anywhere from a few days to a few weeks depending on
your situation. Now it's like having cash to take to the seller! In a situation
where the sellers have several offers to choose from, they will choose the
offer from a buyer that's PRE-APPROVED.
BETTER THAN DAILY SEARCH
When you
first start looking, it's possible that there will be nothing available that
you like. So then what? Your agent should then begin hunting for you and
watching for new listings that match what you're looking for. How often should
your agent check? At the bare minimum once and day, and preferably more. I work
for you and your best interests, and our team will be searching for a property
that meets your criteria several times a day.
SUPER SPEED
As soon as a
listing hits the market, it becomes a race. Who can get there the fastest? In
this market, you need to be prepared to drop everything, leave work, or do
whatever it takes to go see a property. It sounds extreme, but I'm very serious
about this. Time is of the essence. Don't think that you'll take a look at it
this weekend. It could be sold by tonight.
And be
prepared to make an offer on the spot. That means bring your checkbook and be
mentally ready to make a decision. I have the latest wireless technology to
communicate the offer immediately. Your offer is presented in the order
received, so if another offer comes in ten minutes later you get the
deal. The race belongs to the swift.
NO COUNTER OFFER
When we make
an offer, we'll make it with the intention that the seller will accept it. We
don't want to get a counter if at all possible. If the seller counters us, then
there's a very good chance another offer will come in before we can accept the
counter.
For this
reason, we try to make the offer as palatable as possible so the seller can
accept it right away. This means we give the sellers their choice of services,
avoid all contingencies, and steer clear of any terms or conditions out of the
ordinary. Avoid trying to get "a little extra" out of the sellers. In
the past, that idea worked. But try that now and you lose the house altogether.
Doing a great negotiation and losing the house isn't good service. Telling the
truth about what it takes to win in this market is the kind of service you
want.
THE PRICE
Better sit
down for this one. The asking price used to be the price the seller hoped to
get, and the one that offered closest to that price bought the house. That's no
longer true. Now the asking price is the MINIMUM price, the base price to begin
making offers. It's the minimum bid if you will, the starting price at the
auction. Make no mistake, for a hot property in a hot location, there will be
multiple offers, and they will be more than the asking price.
BEST OFFER
Don’t risk
losing a property by offering less than the asking price. By the time we submit
the offer and present it to the seller another offer may come in. The seller
most likely will counter both offers with the same price. If we accepted, and
so did the other buyer there is the possibility that the seller will accept the
other buyer's offer over ours, even though they were both for the same price.
Why, you ask? Because the other buyer's offer was higher than ours originally.
When you’re
in a multiple offer situation, make a very strong offer right off the bat. If
the other offer(s) are lower than ours, and the seller counters the offer(s)
and both are accepted. In other words, the other buyer(s) came up to our price.
So now the seller was looking at two identical offers. Most likely they will
choose ours. Why? Because our offer was better to begin with. Now I know that
this makes no sense. The bottom line is the same, so why does it matter whose
offer was better originally? I have no idea why this works, but it does. So we
don't fight it, we use it to our advantage.
THE BIG PICTURE
Now I know
that all this sounds like we're rolling over and playing dead for the seller.
We're giving them everything they want, and then more. But we'll have the last
laugh. We'll be laughing because we bought a great house in a rising market,
beating out the other buyers! Is it really a big deal to pay a couple thousand
more when the house will be worth 20 or 30 thousand more next year?
Our market is
appreciating at anywhere from 10-20% a year right now. That means that if you
don't buy the house and it takes you a month to find another one, the price
will be a few thousand higher anyway. So are you really paying too much? It's
all in how you frame it in your mind. Don't think you're losing when you pay
over the asking price, you're actually winning. Next year you'll look back and
say what a genius you were for making such a smart move.
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Marc Gohres Phone
(702) 768-8598 Fax
(800) 948-0601 |
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Revised April 12, 2020 9:57 AM