The idea of buying a house seems simple enough. You find something you like, and you buy it. It’s easy to day dream when you’re working towards a goal, but what happens when you’re finally in a position to achieve it? It doesn’t always go as planned.
Read one couple’s story of homebuying challenges, and how you can help avoid them.
Purchasing a home in today’s market presents its share of obstacles. A primary one being the fact that there is a limited selection and so many qualified buyers out there looking. When you’re looking to buy a home, you can no longer rely on the traditional idea of a “Competitive offer”.
Take our recent clients…
Mike and Megan found themselves in a situation that many young couples face when looking to start their family; they needed a bigger home. This task didn’t seem very daunting as they were both young professionals steadily moving up the ladder over the years in their respective fields.
They had decided a few years ago that they would save their bonuses in order to someday purchase a home they would be happy to raise their family in. This led to a rather frugal lifestyle but they knew it was worth it as they were working towards a goal.
They were now at a point where they could seriously start looking for a home to own. They were able to find a great and trustworthy realtor recommended by a close family friend.
Their realtor gave them the standard advice, “head down to your local bank and get a pre-approval.” They followed the instruction and headed down to the bank that Mike has had an account with since his first job. They provided their paper work, filled out the forms, and walked out feeling confident with their pre-approval in hand.
They handed the pre-approval to their realtor and she got to work. With all of the couple’s “must haves” in mind; the realtor was able to find a great neighborhood with tree lined streets, a great school district, and a number of other checks on their list.
Mike and Megan spent a couple of their weekends going to the showings their realtor had scheduled for them and found the ONE. They knew that this was the home they wanted and they were ready. They put their offer in with hearts full of hope and crossed their fingers. They felt that they were in a good position but would take any little push of luck they could get.
They waited a few agonizing days before they got a response. Their hearts fell just a little bit when the realtor told them, “We are currently considering 10 other offers, would you be willing to raise your purchase price?”
It wasn’t ideal, but they were willing. They fell in love with that house and had begun writing the next chapter of their story there. They envisioned chasing their little one around the backyard. Megan had even started to think about the layout of the nursery.
They responded by increasing their purchase price as high as their income and qualification would allow and re-submitted their offer. “This is it”, they thought, “we are qualified, we have jumped through all the hoops, let’s start picking out furniture.”
A few days later they got the news. Their hopes and plans came to a screeching halt as they learned that their offer had been rejected with the parting words of, “better luck next time.”
They steadied themselves; they were horribly disappointed but they knew they had to get back out there. Their home was out there somewhere. All they needed was to find the path to their ideal home. They stood up, dusted themselves off, and went out for another ride. They started looking and bidding again, but by the 4th or 5th rejection they started to lose hope. They knew they were doing all the right things, but none of it seemed to work. In moments of doubt they started to ask themselves the questions that plague the disappointed. What would it take to get an offer accepted? Would they have to raise their children in a rented 1 bedroom walk-up?
That’s when we stepped in.
We’ve been using these 5 simple strategies to help our clients and referral partners dramatically increase their chances of getting their offer accepted.
CLICK HERE for the 5 things any lender should be able to offer their clients, to help them get off the offer – rejection (not so) merry-go-round.
