Wow it’s crazy out there. Jan/Feb has been insanely competitive. I put 3 offers and got a home on my 3rd. All multiple offers. All houses escalated. One had 18 offers. I paid 10% over list price for a home in QA. It was on the market for 2 days. It felt like ive had another full-time job over the past few months. Some tips I have for other potential home buyers: 1. See a shitload of open houses. This will give you an idea of neighborhoods, price ranges, things you like or dont like etc. very important you do this so that you feel comfortable and ready to pull the trigger on a home when you see it. I probably saw close to 50 open houses. I saw 10 open houses alone on Saturday. 2. Get pre-underwritten. you need to be competitive. Quick closes are a very strong point on offer terms. 3. Take advantage of opportunities. I feel like i got lucky since the market has been very dry over the past few months. then over the past week several homes pop up. this will diversify the buyers and let you have a potential opportunity to be aggressive on a home you like. Many homes have offer review dates of 1 week out. but if not, then you can take advantage of this as a buyer. if you can get in, pre-inspect, and offer before anyone else, then this is a huge opportunity. Put in an offer with a deadline and force the seller to make the decision now. In this market, you’ll need to waive inspection, appraisal, and finance to be competitive. So i strongly suggest you get pre-approved to mitigate financing. Pre-inspect the home so youre ok to waive inspection. And look at comps for appraisal. Appraisal is a risk in hot markets, but apparently low appraisals are very rare. if there are competing bids and other homes in the range, then appraisal should be fine. Personally, I think home costs are going to continue to rise. AMZN, MSFT, and GOOGL are at all time highs. Seattle is continuing to hire tons of tech talent. Google, Facebook, Expedia, Uber, etc are investing in SLU. Jan-Jun has historically been a bad time to buy, and you can probably wait till late summer/fall to buy if you want to get deals. But timing the market is tough. These are my thoughts. Just went through the whole process over the past 5 months. Its been an emotional rollercoaster. Let me know if you have any questions. And it’s definitelty possible that Ive made a terrible financial decision EDIT: Home budget price: $1M - $1.4M 20% down payment One other note is that I noticed that competing bids thin at higher ranges (1.3M+). I think the buyer pool may start to thin here. And you can probably get less competitive/better deals if you can afford and feel comfortable on this range #seattle
TC? Home price? Wtf op. You made an informative post yet didnt give the most important two details
Can you give a range of the price you paid: $500k-$1M, $1M,-1.5M, 1.5-2, etc? Just trying to understand the range and compare it to your situation.
You will notice home prices fall right after buying
TC?
Did you waive everything? How much cash did you have available?
Which neighborhood? Cap hill? SLU?
Man committing to living in Seattle where it's always misty and grey is scary to me. Respect for your decision
Yeah I know. It feels crazy to spend so much money on a home here.
Congrats 🍾 and thanks for sharing :)