To all the agents in the house,
Can we be real for a moment? Not everyone has the resources or the stomach to buy a house in this market. Those are just the facts – with inventory at historic lows and prices at historic highs, plenty of people experiencing real estate FOMO (fear of missing out) are going to be left on the sideline. And there's no shame in that! Who could blame someone for not wanting to pay $100,000 over ask!
All of this makes life very difficult for a buy-side agent. Coordinating showings with overwhelmed sell-side agents, finding off-market deals, walking clients through bidding wars, weighing which contingencies to waive, providing therapy sessions for clients who lost yet another deal – it's all a major time-suck.
And if you know your client is facing off with local flippers, cash-buyers, institutional investors and other well-resourced opponents, I have to imagine the service you provide has to be commensurate with how serious you believe that client to be. You can't waste time with people who won't/can't compete.
So, agents: how do you suss out which buyers to prioritize? How do you communicate the strategy to someone you're not sure will close on anything in the next six months?
I'm really curious to hear how many of your clients you expect to sit out the market until things cool down. And what's your plan for retaining their business when they are finally ready?
As always, you can share with me anonymously at jkleimann@housingwire.com. Thanks very much!
James Kleimann
Managing Editor, HousingWire
P.S. We just launched a new weekly newsletter about appraisals, called AppraisalAlert. Our newsroom will be covering issues related to comps, appraisal timelines, the appraisal gap, challenges with appraisals for FHA/VA/USDA loans and much more. We'd love to hear from real estate agents about their experiences with appraisers and appraisals in this market. Reach out to me via email and subscribe at this link.
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