I like to equate home buying with the red shoe shopping experience. Women will know what I am talking about. Red shoes, for me, are the hardest shoes to buy. They are special. Powerful. And must be perfect. So, if I walk into a mall and spy the **perfect** pair in a display window, I might be tempted to go to every other shoe store in the mall to see if I can find a better pair of red shoes. I know in my mind that I should just buy the first pair I see, but sometimes I like to validate my decision and know beyond a reasonable shadow of doubt that I have examined every single pair of red shoes in the universe and, as a result, have selected the most beautiful and magical pair of red shoes that I could find.
In some ways, home buyers do the same thing. They don't want to end up in escrow on a home only to discover that a home in a better location or condition or with a lower price tag was available at the same time and they missed the opportunity to buy it.
However, buyer's shopping habits have changed from 10 years ago. Now, they can find everything online. Providing they have reasonable expectations, they pretty much know the home they want when they see it. I negotiated four purchase offers over the past week for home buyers who singled out their home before calling me. They had already combed the bushes, gone to open houses, talked with other agents and figured out what they wanted to do by the time they picked up the phone to call me.
On the other hand, it's rare to show homes to buyers for more than two days. In part, that's because we have no inventory in Sacramento, and inventory is still falling. In September of 2007, Sacramento County had 10,454 homes on the market. By November of 2008, those numbers dropped to 6,354 homes, leaving us with less than 4 months of inventory.
We're also seeing multiple offers on the attractive and well priced homes, which means buyers need a strategy now more than ever to snatch up that perfect home before somebody else beats them to it. They still need a real estate agent because unlike buying a pair of red shoes, buyers can't point to a house, hand over a credit card and ring up their purchase at the cash register.
They need help with figuring out the right price to offer, deciphering comparable sales, fine-tuning the purchase offer, positioning their offer against the competition and negotiating that offer to put it into escrow. And that's just the beginning of the process. After offer acceptance, the real fun begins. Navigating escrow, inspections, disclosures and finally closing.
So, I am happy that today's home buyers are better educated, technically savvy and smarter than home buyers of days gone by. I like it that they want to be part of the process and are committed to understanding the fine nuances of real estate. It's a pleasure to work with today's exceptional home buyers. It makes my job even more delightful.
Tomorrow, I'll write about first-time home buyers who successfully snagged their dream home in Folsom, which had a bunch of offers by the time we showed up.
The Short Sale, by Elizabeth Weintraub, coming from Archer Ellison in January 2009.
Photo: Big Stock Photo
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Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.
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The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.
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I used to say if we looked at 12 homes we had to re-evaluate if the right group of homes were being looked at. In todays market so much is done on line recently 2 homes were the finalists before we ever went out to look and the first one was the favorite.
Elizabeth
A very good analogy with buying. Did you get a new doo?
Sincerely
Tom Braatz
Normally 2-3 days of showing for me, I have a large area to cover and many different subdivisions to choose from. I too prefer to make sure the Buyers see enough of the area to make sure that they made the right choice and don't wish that had been shown the home in the next subdivision.
I like showing to people who come into town to buy. Ones who have to sell to buy can wear you out and look for years! Good blog.
Lower inventory, great news Elizabeth. You are right, the proper strategy is important in today's market, it is just different than yesterday's.
Elizabeth: There is still so much inventory in our neck of the woods that buyers could shop from now until NEXT Christmas. It's exhausting.
That is great news that the inventory has dropped so much in Sacramento. I had not heard that yet.
Marcy Moyer Keller Williams Realty Palo Alto, Ca.
Elizabeth,
Real Estate part is OK, I can understand. The shoes part is more difficult, looks like it si still the art of something, whihc I do not quite understand.
I remeber at one time a couple of years ago NAR was giving the statstics: customers look at 23 homes before the offer.
Elizabeth - In my own experience that number has bounced all over the place. I once worked for a broker, that said he showed no more than 8, and then expected a decision from the buyer. I was never that rigid.
I have many times showed only one home, and had the buyer make the purchase. In other instances, I've shown as many as 30 houses, before making the transaction. My philosophy is that it is never a waste of time to show many houses. I've actually had a buyer or two, apologize to me when we ha viewed a dozen homes or more before writing a offer. My standard offer is, that I must view properties anyway to keep abreast of the inventory. So whether I do it alone through the preview process, or with a buyer, makes no difference. Also, any time spent with a buyer is usually good company, and enjoyable. . .What's not to like!
Elizabeth- I agonize of most purchases, but I have to tell you I have never had a pair of red shoes. Of course that being said I don't know many ladies in this, the Dairy Capital of Georgia, with red shoes. Milking boots, yup I got those. I love the post and how I wish I had less inventory than I did a year ago for buyers to see.
I'm looking forward to the first time buyer post. I don't get many of those either. Most of my clients are buying a vacation home and I've just had a few first time buyers moving to the lake over the years.
wow it is encouraging to see your market stats - often times your sellers buy second homes here - and you are right those red shoes are awfully powerful and must be perfect -
wow a much different market then so much of the rest of the u.s. and canada! good for you!
It is a pleasure to work with internet saavy buyers and sellers who live out of town. They have access to more information and with the help of a competent agent they have access to better information about the market in general and about specific properties which includes overhead photos and google earth imagery. It the context of communicating with clients these are the best of times.
Elizabeth - I'm glad that your inventory is shrinking so quickly! That's not happening everywhere, but your market is a sign of good things to come... :)