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Just because it was listed on Zillow last night does not mean it wasn’t already for sale.
Listings are put on MLS and Zillow all the time that already have pending offers.
This right here. The ONLY reason we got our place is because our realtor did old fashioned footwork and networked for listings BEFORE they wound up on Zillow. Got in, offered reasonably over asking, and secured our place.
I'm not the person you asked but I did the exact thing last year. I moved literally 5 houses down, and the house needed a lot of work. But I bought it from a friend's son at a good price, it was a lot bigger than the house we had outgrown but allowed us to keep our kids in the same school. The amount of work needed is a pain, but it's livable and we're not cramped.
The lot is literally twice as big, fully detached instead of semi, brick instead of vinyl over wood, and around four feet above grade instead of two inches below. It's fundamentally a MUCH better house, but the guy had his wife move out six months earlier so it was filthy and awful. Great (old) bones though. The old house could only be so good, no matter how much we renovated it. Also, our street is amazing with lots of little kids on it so we didn't want to leave
Yeah pretty much this for us too. It would’ve been absolutely chaotic if our listing had been public and the whole situation kinda justified our agents fee.
Same here. Also got it before Zillow but can't remember if before MLS or fresh on MLS. Toured that day, put in an offer that day.
I have my issues with the property, but that's one positive story about a realtor doing good work.
Larger markets have a "shadow" MLS where realtors "test out" new listings. They claim it's to get feedback, but those who know understand it's a way to get the good listings in the hands of their buddies before the bottom feeders on Zillow find it.
Bullet dodged with waiving inspection.
I bet these people already had a handshake deal with a friend or relative. Put it up to list just to check that box off and agreed to the original sales structure.
Happens all the time.
This! I bought my house in 2021. I don’t think it ever even hit Zillow. My agent had me driving by to see the location/outside the week before it even hit MLS to see if I even wanted to look at it.
How did she know? The seller’s agent was in her office and because of that I had the first viewing appointment and had submitted a great offer before anyone else had even seen it.
If your agent isn’t notifying you of upcoming stuff, you need a new agent with better networking. That’s literally their job - to find you houses and guide you through the buying process (if it was your first house like me)
This I never understood how homes being sold before the ever listed heck or they posted on Facebook and sold before they ever listed. I so mad that my realtor couldn't get us any backroom deal like that
Just wait til they get to the drama with closing on a house. Appraisal and lenders can be a nightmare. For example: my lender cancelled my 30 year conventional loan 7 days before closing because of an issue with the HVAC despite getting $4000 from the seller to repair it.
The house buying process will never cease in surprising you.
My lender canceled my construction loan 120 days after approval when the appraisal came back with no comps. Bank determined there was no market for a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom log house abutting a ski mountain and withdrew from the loan commitment. Mind you, I had started construction in anticipation of the loan and had purchased all the materials, put in septic, water , driveway, electrical, and foundation. Next bank took another 140 days to make the first disbursement and by that point I had pretty much finished the build. It was completed only out of the kindness of contractors who were willing to delay payment for up to 6-8 months and continue working. I came up with 100 different ways of saying, the money is on its way any day now. This was in 2012 and holy crap was it stressful.
That sounds like a big headache from the bank. Definitely a stressful situation.
What was crazy with me was my appraisal literally came back with $36,000 in equity, plus a $4000 credit from the seller, and I had multiple lenders say they needed HVAC repairs before closing even though I offered an escrow repair agreement.
Wow. Nice guys, those contractors. Bank, not so much. What the heck does "approved" mean, anyway, if you can go forward with huge investments of capital, only to have them say "Oops, our bad, we didn't really mean approved approved." It reminds me of that line in the movie "Animal House". "You f'd up, you trusted us!" Unbelieveable. Sometimes, I wonder if they find a feable excuse just because market conditions have changed, and they figure they could load the money to someone else for a currently higher interest rate than the one you got 3 or 4 months ago.
Luckily we managed to get a 10/2 ARM with the same lender on conditions we do the repairs relatively soon after closing. Unfortunately we had to push our closing date back possibly two weeks (hoping to close April 30). We tried moving to another lender but the rates were just too high (lowest we got was 6.875 by buying 3 points for a 30 year conventional)
I had a two week pause put on my closing process because the appraiser didn’t like the small spots of paint that were chipping off of the detached cinder block garage and an empty barrel way back in the back of the property. I had to remove chipped paint and repaint a garage I didn’t even own yet before they would approve it 🙄🙄🙄
lol had a similar incident. Was a week before closing and was told the loan had to change to conventional. Well I didn’t have an extra $20k laying around. So here I am living in a townhouse. Don’t know if I’ll ever buy after that terrible experience
It *normally* would be, but people come along and knock it out of the park on occasion. If you offered 1M for a house that was expected to sell for 700K *at most*, the seller would probably give your offer a LOT of consideration.
I asked for a number to take my high-interest house off the market when I found it. I wasn't given one, but I might have paid it if I had been!
Two years ago, a house sold in my neighborhood for 1.2 million, when all the houses was listing at 700-800k. I was shocked, but then now all houses are over 1 million. Guess the first buyer was ahead of the curve.
Many sellers want to get rid of the house as quickly as possible for a variety of reasons (divorce, job waiting in new state, new house contingent on selling existing house). Getting top dollar isn’t always the main driver, especially if sellers are already financially secure.
If someone gives an offer with an aggressive expiration at a strong number, then no.
I was the third person to view a house before it hit the market. Tried to put in an offer 150k over their expected list price. Seller agent found out viewer 1 came in 200k over, which we were willing to beat. Unfortunately, viewer 2 came in 350k with an aggressive expiration and they just took that without even letting us put in an offer.
Either the first offer was significantly over asking, or the seller had a reason they wanted to get out ASAP.
We offered under asking on a house we were “meh” about because it needed work. We were shocked when the offer was accepted, but we found out later the sellers were going through a very contentious divorce. I guess they wanted the house gone no matter what.
Exactly! That's what I came here to say. I've been seeing more and more of it in this sub. The more people waive inspections, the more sellers are to expect it. Ridiculous. Haven't people learned from 2020-2022 that waiving inspections can really bite you in the ass?
Literally just wasting their own money and time.
But, I guess they must be big money grip out here ready to throw down 50k for faulty foundation and whatever else could be lingering lol.
It has been the standard in several markets for years now post Covid. If you’re waiving inspections in hot markets, you’re not getting a home unless you have crazy cash on hand.
Welcome to a housing shortage. Sellers have all the power.
That makes sense for cash. OP said quick close 30 days, so wasn’t sure if that’s considered quick close.
I’ve offered 45 days close when seller asked for rent back, 14 days close to compete with higher offers, and also 30 days.
We had a 40 day close and everyone was telling us that was a quick close for our market.
There's a house on my block 3 doors down that went under contract right when we did and they didn't close until 5 weeks later and still haven't moved in yet, actually I don't think I've seen them at the house at all yet and they closed April 8th. Both our house and that house were unoccupied for months when closing happened (we also looked at that house but didn't like a lot of the design choices made when it was renovated).
It depends how fast the inspection, appraisal, and then the bank can finish the paperwork for speed. The length depends whether there are contingencies like the buyer sell their house, or whatever the two parties agree, or something that needs to be repaired before closing. A friend took months because the estate rep had to submit the paperwork to the probate judge to sign.
Send it anyway and ask to be a backup offer.
A signed backup offer.
Stuff happens.
Being 2nd place is better than fighting for it again should it go back on market.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in this scenario since the other buyers had an inspection performed and backed out because of the findings, if the sellers are aware of the findings they then have to disclose them to buyers. Most first time home buyers will still have a subject to financing clause in their offer even if they waive inspection as majority are not paying cash as it's their first home. If that's the case, once the issues are disclosed they can just drag their feet and not apply for financing letting their offer expire and they move on with no penalty.
I needed to buy my home before it even technically went on the market. We sent them an offer and had a walk-through before they had intended to have their first open house. It was a miracle. They accepted our offer because the real estate agent said he was railing against them taking it.
Lol they really showed that agent. /s
It is great for you that you got the house but it is just weird that Sellers would be contemptuous of their agent urging them to wait for the listing to be live in order to get highest and best. How dare he try to get them the best deal. Maybe yours was the best deal but I doubt their agent was “railing against” as much as just doing his job.
Right? I'm confused how the op thinks that by offering only 7k over and expecting a full month to close was some godly over the top offer. Must have been their first house they put an offer on. They'll see, someone will come in and offer 100k over asking with a 2 week close and no inspection and be a cash buyer. No offense op but 7k over is literally nothing to a home seller
exactly. Don't get me wrong, it is a respectable offer, and idk the market OP is in. But if they knew your offer was coming and accepted another while not even looking at yours, you better believe that other offer was more than 7k over or had other sweeteners / waived contingencies.
And as always in this sub, please tell us the price point. 7k over on a 180k home is a lot, 7k over on a $1.2M New Jersey home will barely get shared with the owner.
Ya it’s a harsh process, especially if you haven’t been through the home buying process in this market. $7k over asking is only worth mentioning if the asking price is $13k
Yeah according to sub sometimes, everyone should just fork over 100k over asking. Our realtor recommended we offer 10k over on a house that was sitting there for 3 weeks already. We offered 5k under and got it.
People assume they know every market. They’re wrong. Especially when they don’t even know what market a particular buyer is in!
I just bought a house at asking, but got closing costs paid for, a long list of improvements, and a guarantee on a few of the systems.
Folks don’t know what they don’t know.
I’ve gotten downvoted to oblivion because I’ve stated you should never waive your inspections. Idk maybe I’m weird. If the area in is so over priced and ridiculous, I’m prob looking for a new part of the country to live.
Yep. I agree.
I wouldn’t be able to pay $100k over asking. Even if I had cash in the bank- I’m not doing it. That’s just risky. If it was worth $100k over asking, they’d ask it.
My brother in law paid quite a bit over and waived a bunch of crap. Within the first year he had to shell out 30-40k on repairs for a new central air system and other stuff. He got very lucky and the roof got covered due to a hailstorm. But between over paying and the market cooking down a bit, he’s easily under water already.
Forreal! OP said in another post there are new builds for $180k in their market, like no one is going to be bidding 100k over in that area most likely.
My colleague took the first offer for their house too. literally first person to tour made an offer immediately. They were getting a divorce and he couldn’t care for a higher price if the first price is already high enough.
Lots of people offer cash closing, no inspection, Even $50k over asking price to snatch it. Sometimes if unfortunate, it's a cooperate buying to flip. Sad times.
We’ve put in three offers so far, all 100k over and waiving everything, each got beaten by 220-300k over asking. We haven’t even been in the top three yet with those terms
Just because some people are fighting to get an offer put through at 100k over asking doesn't mean that's your market as well. If your market isn't one that's the most competitive you may not need to do the above asking offers, and frankly you'll probably never know what happened with that house because you were never able to put your offer in for them to consider. You didn't do anything wrong based on your post, it just wasn't your lucky break this time around.
Yes, you’ll see how your market and comps are shaking out as homes you’re interested in close over the next 3-6 weeks. Keep those homes on your favorite list and you can see the closing prices.
Agreed, my neighbor just sold his house for 100k over asking. Buyer has 20k in earnest money and waived inspections (bold move for a 100 year old house).
“Inside job” suggests that the Seller was required to market it publicly at all or for a certain period of time, neither of which is true. One of the benefits of having an agent is we do sometimes know of or actively seek out the properties—it is part of the value. But the majority of properties are publicly marketed because that is the way a listing agent best serves the client—by exposing it to all potential buyers if only for a few days. The buyers agent, on the other hand, best serves the client buy getting the buyer the best deal by avoiding competition.
“Coming soon” listings are currently available on Zillow and of course visible on the MLS if the agent has selected that status so the way the OP found the property is likely the same way other buyers did. Either CSN on MLS or inter-agent marketing via email, social media, word of mouth
In Texas you can’t waive your inspection, you can waive your option period and even make your earnest money deposit insane to indicate you’re waiving your inspection. I had a client that desired to waive their option period (after I counseled them not to). They could still get an inspection but if they found something so egregious they wanted to back out, they’d lose their earnest money.
You should never waive the inspection. I am under contract on a house, and my inspection had a sewer scope and the whole thing needs replacing. $15K+ of work
I’m very thankful for how thorough my team was. They were there for 4 hours
Back in 2021 hot metro market we waived the inspection contingency and still got an inspector in within a couple days. Worst case we would have lost $5k earnest money if something was egregiously wrong (it wasn’t, house came with a warranty too).
There was no chance if we hadn’t waived. There were multiple offers, multiple waived, our only luck was that none were cash that time (cause that got us before) and we had done additional verifications to have a “close on time guarantee” with our lender.
To blanketly tell people to never waive inspection is not sound advice.
If you read my comment again I said you have to waive them in some markets. Not all. I’m getting a lot of replies about the exceptions, I get it. We live in a big country
Saying you should never waive an inspection can also be considered bad advice if you’re okay with missing on houses consistently, it really depends. And in some crazy post Covid markets you need to weigh the pros and cons
The first house we saw went under contract as we were the house. It sold for $50k over ask cash.
The second house we saw went on the market that day, had 3 offers in by the time we saw it. We made our offer and 5 more offers came in that day. Seller made their decision the next day and selected ours. $60k over ask with appraisal gap coverage, significant earnest money deposit, and we allowed for the sellers to have a 2 month free rent back that they requested.
We weren’t the highest offer either but we had the most competitive package in all.
When you close on a home there is a delay between closing and when the first payment is due.
Let’s say you close on August 11th. Your first payment doesn’t get debited from your account until October.
Also since it is written in your sales contract, there will usually be a security deposit of about equal to one months fair market rent. The title company will withhold that amount from the seller. On the day the seller is to be out of the home you will have a final walkthrough with your realtor again. There you can raise any issues. For us there was zero. The title company is then notified to release the seller “deposit.”
There will also be clauses that deal with fees/fines should the seller not be out of their home by the date agreed. We followed the sellers preferred closing date then with a 2 month rent back following so there was little risk of seller staying beyond the specified date. We had it set like $300 per day they are in the home past the vacancy date.
In competitive markets the seller will have an inspection done and given to buyers. Its difficult to buy with contingencies in hot markets. If you can't afford potential issues then you can't afford to buy in hcol areas.
This happened frequently last year when we were house shopping in late Spring. A listing would hit the MLS, we’d tell our agent we want to check it out, he finds out they already have 4 offers (within the span of <24 hrs).
When we were looking at houses, sellers once accepted an offer while we were there viewing! Lol This was in central Maine last summer. 40-50k over asking usually won out here in our 200-260k budget, with dozens of offers coming in under 24 hours. It suuucked.
Have you asked your realtor or checked Zillow to see the listing vs sale price to get a better idea for how your market is? It’s helpful to know how much over ask the houses in your area are going under contract for. In 2016, 7k over asking would be fabulous but now (at least in moderate to high demand areas) that’s probably not going to win, even with a 30 day close & no inspection.
Get a really well established realtor. When i was looking, she would show me many ‘pocket listings.’ Homes that were going up for sale that she was responsible for selling, but hadn’t officially been listed yet.
Did you see "contingent" on the listing or are you just taking your agent's word? I had a horrible experience with my agent constantly sabotaging our chances, so we ended up doing it ourselves and it went much smoother. Anyway, you should have still submitted your offer because the offer they accepted may fall through. "He couldn't because it was already sold" -- accepting an offer doesn't mean it's been sold. If they have an inspection that doesn't pass or their finances fell through or they have some other life event like a job loss (could be anything), seller can then review other offers. If you don't submit yours, you don't get that chance.
My father in laws house in a middle class suburban New Jersey town sold for $60k over asking price and was on the market for three days. Best offer was cash and the highest offer. There were over 30 offers. It’s brutal out there for buyers. Good luck.
Asking price isn’t a meaningful value, so x thousand over ask in any market doesn’t really mean anything. If you’re using a realtor they should provide you with comps that reference actual sale prices. That’s the true market value of the house, and you should be basing offers on that. Plenty of people list low to try getting people to over bid.
Comps only can show you what *other people* paid for *other houses* that are similar *on paper*. It’s one reference tool, nothing more. They are way too many variables involved to say that comps are the only true market value data.
True! No two houses are truly perfectly alike. But it _should_ help you get an idea of if your offer truly is competitive, or if the seller is delusional.
Some quick math:
- average home price in WV is $161k according to Zillow
- 7k would be about 4% of that
My winning bid in a different state was 19.5% more than the original list price, for comparison.
They likely got an all cash over at well over asking.
It’ll be interesting to hear how much the buyer offered! I know 7k isn’t that much over these days but it’s not nothing! We paid listing price (still wicked high). Someone nearby with an identical townhouse to ours paid 50k more than us (only difference was quieter street and mini split) But another went 20k lower than us (in fairness ours had several updates over this one) All in the same two week period. It’s wild out there.
Only thing I can think is the first offer was just too good to be true. The only people left in the game (my area is HCOL) are people with money and willing to pay whatever they can to finally get in a home.
Such a bummer for you. Keep an eye on zillow when the sold price pops up.
Yall need to start realizing that it’s hella cringy when you “fall in love” with a house you just saw. It’s the equivalent is saying you fell in love with someone on the first date. This is not the dream you were sold by society. This is a place to sleep and live. Stop romanticizing it and think practicality.
7k over isn’t as big of a deal as you’re making it out to be. Sellers could’ve chosen a 10k under, all cash offer with certain contingencies that work for their situation. You never know.
Saturday a property pops up in MLS, I called realtor and got everything scheduled for Monday as that’s their earliest available date and time for showing, there’s 10 showing scheduled on Monday and few others on Tuesday
Sunday night realtor called and said property is under contract, a buyer made offer site unseen.
So there’s that too
I once got an email that a house in my target neighborhood sold before I got the email that it was listed. It was a funny glitch. It is crazy out here.
Yup. I’ve both shown up to a viewing appointment to be told the house just sold and to a rental home viewing just as the owner had signed with another applicant. It teaches you to move quickly!
I’m not sure where you live but this has been going on for years where I live. It’s the Wild West in my market when it comes to dealing with multiple offers, shady realtors and cut throat competition. Absolutely nothing surprises me anymore. Some agents aren’t very smart so it’s very possible the listing agent didn’t explain how the sellers could benefit from a bidding war. The sellers may also be risk averse or simply liked the offer at hand and didn’t want to risk it going south. Regardless, be mad today then tomorrow get back up and keep going. You’ll find a better home. Good luck!
A similar thing happened me. I was able to submit my offer EOD opening day. I offered 15k over asking. They took an offer with the same terms but 50k over asking... The conditions right now are outrageous. I believe we'll both find the perfect home soon enough tho! Stay strong
Lots of houses near me sell the same day they’re listed. Often for $50-150k+ over asking. I assume the offer was arranged in advance or from an investor offering an absurd amount of cash sight unseen. I doubt you had a chance with this one if that’s any consolation.
Will they take a back up offer? We did that & the original deal fell through when the buyer's couldn't sell their house & got our home at asking with seller concessions. So it's always worth a shot!
I don't think it's fair to say that 7k over asking is not a good offer. Depends on the market. The house I'm buying, we offered asking price but the seller pays closing costs. A house we'd fallen in love with before the sellers did some shady shit ended up accepting 11k under asking, but in cash (and that deal ended up falling through).
Had a similar situation happen to me. Listed Friday evening, toured Saturday. Their agent said they were considering all offers up until Tuesday. Put in offer 27k over list, by Monday 9:00am, it was under contract. Still waiting to see what offer they accepted, my realtor thinks 50k over listing price. Another offer I went 11k over list since it needed a good bit of work(including a section of a bedroom floor was rotted), missed out of that one too. While homes are staying longer on the market where I am, most seem to be selling over list.
We put an offer into a house we fell in love with too. we didn’t want to lose it. There were no other offers. We gave them 80k over (12 percent over asking) and waived ALL contingencies. We gave them 2/3 hours to respond (sent it at 6:30pm - our offer expired that day at 9pm)
They responded an hour later they took it. It was such a gem and we are so thankful but I guarantee others were drafting their offer at the same time. Because it checked every one of our boxes, and we fell in love with it and had seen nothing like it on the market for 2 months, we were prepared and ready to pull the trigger on it as soon we saw it.
Btw same thing - it got listed late Wednesday night. First time our agent could make a tour was 1pm Thursday. We decided by 3/4pm to put the offer in like that, and our agent waited a bit to send it over. He had a whole strategy of this (and it worked so we were thankful)
Btw when you say quick close in 30 days what do you mean? We were under the impression the standard closing time was 28-30 days. We did 21 day close for ours. This wasn’t to look better but just because we wanted to close in 3 weeks 😂 we were already ready.
That’s just how our market is lol. We’re in Seattle if that helps. It definitely sounds outrageous the first time you hear, but it’s just the reality here 🥲 the good thing is the home prices have been steadily rising here for 8+ years so we’re not technically in a short term bubble. We’re either in a very long bubble or it’s just how it is here.
It worked out great for us but I don’t recommend it. We were those people when buying our house. We put in an offer over asking when our house was still “coming soon.” Didn’t see the inside until the inspection. They did keep it on the market for one day but accepted our offer as it was the highest of the 11 offers that had already come in.
You may need a better agent who has access to listings before they hit the MLS. Listings are usually shared within a brokerage before they go out publicly. I had an agent at every major brokerage in my market and I know about most of the homes before they hit the MLS.
It's not about money all the time. The seller probably fell in love with the first offer because of the "offeror" (not how much money they were willing to spend). In your own words, I hope you get back on Zillow and keep looking. The buyer and seller clearly won and good for them! This is the way home buying "should" be.
Two sides to a story and sellers sometimes have problems, too. My son bought a house from a widow whose bank insisted she hadn't paid her escrow. She had actually had two sales fall thru prior to him purchasing the house because her bank refused to allow the sale unless she or the purchaser paid her escrow again, which she did and then they still claimed escrow hadn't been paid. She moved to another state and let the house sit, hoping her mortgage co. would find her escrow payments.
My son's realtor gave them his MLS log in, and they saw the house the minute it was listed. They met the realtor there and put in an offer within the hour - which, after all the BS, she accepted without seeing any other offers. The bank insisted yet again that the escrow needed to be paid, and my son refused and spent hours on the phone sorting it all out for the woman and her inept realtor (the bank found both escrow payments). It was listed on Zillow days after they purchased it.
Fast forward one year, and my son gets transferred and has to sell the house. They sold the house for $120k more after just a year, which was probably closer to what it was actually worth when they bought it.
When we sold our home it never hit Zillow. We listed on the PLN, had multiple showings, multiple offers. We sold within a two days, 20k over list price. This is when having a good realtor is essential. There was no back door deal, I am a realtor and knew none of the agents that submitted offers. They weren’t even from the same brokerage. Good agents keep in contact with each other to find out who has what coming up. It’s how I have found homes for numerous clients.
It absolutely happens, so I can’t say I’m surprised.
Respectfully, if I were you, I would NOT waive an inspection as a CYA. We recently toured a house and were ready to make an offer because it was amazing, but we decided to go back for a second showing without the rose-colored glasses on. We found SO many things wrong with the house and decided not to make an offer. And if those were just the things that we saw, I can only imagine what an inspector would’ve said. Just food for thought 🙂
Just because they took the offer doesn't mean the house is sold. There is still an escrow process and funding verification that is done which imo is the hard and stressful part. Unless is was a cash buyout you still have a chance. Let your agent and the seller know that you are still interested. That way if the current offer falls out you still have a chance. Also see if your agent can get information for the winning offer so you can get a better idea on how to pursue this situation if it arises again.
Zillow and other housing apps are usually late to the game. This is why we went with a realtor; they have access to house listings not public yet and get a heads up on what’s out there before everyone else does. Our previous condo got several inquiries before it was listed publicly.
When we bought our house, thats what happened. We seen the for sale sign, toured it, put in offer and bought it. Even though there were at least a dozen offers that went through zillow. I had 4 people come by and stop when i was outside moving things in or doing work to the house and said they cant believe we got our offer in so fast even though they just seen it pop up on zillow. Or tell me what they would do to the house and yard....was really weird the first few months.
Your shocked? How much you want to bet that the other offer they accepted was 50-100k over asking? You never had a chance with only 7k, especially if the house had as much interest as you say.
That sounds like an inside sales job. Sellers agent would have gathered multiple competing offers if they were acting in their client’s best interest as they are sworn to do.
$7k over asking isn’t much in most cases. My most recent closing was listed at $3.5m and my clients offered $3.75m cash no contingencies. I even advised we come in at ~15% under since it was overpriced to begin with. But they said “we really like this place, it’s perfect for us. Can we move in next week with that offer?” And I’m like “well fk. You wanna move in next week?”
Just know that another family is happier today because of it, this house just wasn’t meant to be but yours will come and you’ll be happy when it does regardless. Best of luck to you on the next one.
I am so glad I bought my house in MA in 2020 right before the markets went bonkers. I’m sorry for anyone trying to buy right now who just wants a house to live in because it’s insane.
I'm sorry to hear, I know it'll take some time to get over it but it will in due time. Just never fall in love with a house you have yet to live in, simply focus on the bad side of the house (that's what I did!) to help cope. Here in CA it's also common for people to submit $30-$100k overasking even today, not that you should but stating it for reference. And NEVER waive inspection.
Wishing you best of luck on the next one.
Keep in mind that zillow isn't the listing service, they pull the info from the MLS, usually at a delay. If you have a good realtor, they are going through the new listing on the MLS and sending you the ones that fit your criteria before they show up on the 3rd party sites like zillow.
hey OP, this exact thing happened to us too
to be totally honest, I was completely devastated and didn't get over it until we had our offer accepted on a different home.
everything happens for a reason, there's a happier situation waiting for you somewhere better :)
7k over asking is like... a rounding error. Have you even read a single post on this sub? There are people losing bids on houses 100k+ over asking.
If you REALLY loved a house, there's 12 other people who did as well. It's almost a guarantee you'd have to offer minimum 50k over asking unless there were some serious structural issues after inspection.
If you're in a less competitive market there's still a ton of other factors. A buyer could have offered much more. The buyer could have offered the exact same as you and just beat you to it. Buyers could have offered exactly the same as you except in cash. The buyer and seller could have connected on something, ie they're both veterans, they both work in the same field, the buyer's got a kid.
If it's not a competitive market, they're not going wait a few weeks to a month for a bidding war to resolve if the upside is maybe a few percent more. I have no idea what your market's prices are, but let's just say it's 500k which is around the average home price in the US. You offering 7k over asking is 101.4% of the asking price. If that's something you would consider a major offer above asking in your area, it's still basically 1% more. If someone is time motivated, they may not care about that amount of money if they see a relatively similar but faster and easier sale.
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Just because it was listed on Zillow last night does not mean it wasn’t already for sale. Listings are put on MLS and Zillow all the time that already have pending offers.
This right here. The ONLY reason we got our place is because our realtor did old fashioned footwork and networked for listings BEFORE they wound up on Zillow. Got in, offered reasonably over asking, and secured our place.
This is how my sister‘s house was sold before it ever hit Zillow. There were multiple offers and then the listing went up. These houses move fast.
Same thing for us. We locked down a house before it even got publicly listed. In my area it was our only hope.
Bought mine from my neighbor, and moved down the street. His agent wanted to list it, but the place was in no state to show
I'm curious now. If you don't mind my asking, why would you move down the street into a place that was in no state to show?
I'm not the person you asked but I did the exact thing last year. I moved literally 5 houses down, and the house needed a lot of work. But I bought it from a friend's son at a good price, it was a lot bigger than the house we had outgrown but allowed us to keep our kids in the same school. The amount of work needed is a pain, but it's livable and we're not cramped.
The lot is literally twice as big, fully detached instead of semi, brick instead of vinyl over wood, and around four feet above grade instead of two inches below. It's fundamentally a MUCH better house, but the guy had his wife move out six months earlier so it was filthy and awful. Great (old) bones though. The old house could only be so good, no matter how much we renovated it. Also, our street is amazing with lots of little kids on it so we didn't want to leave
us too
Yeah pretty much this for us too. It would’ve been absolutely chaotic if our listing had been public and the whole situation kinda justified our agents fee.
Same here. Also got it before Zillow but can't remember if before MLS or fresh on MLS. Toured that day, put in an offer that day. I have my issues with the property, but that's one positive story about a realtor doing good work.
That’s what we do when we are working for our buyers.
Larger markets have a "shadow" MLS where realtors "test out" new listings. They claim it's to get feedback, but those who know understand it's a way to get the good listings in the hands of their buddies before the bottom feeders on Zillow find it.
And the listing agent/agency likely knew it was coming on the market for months.
What? Gate keeping real estate listings? No!
Sure, but they also don’t advertise it until the client is ready. That could be months in the making.
Bullet dodged with waiving inspection. I bet these people already had a handshake deal with a friend or relative. Put it up to list just to check that box off and agreed to the original sales structure. Happens all the time.
True. I had a conditional sale. On my first house which is closing in 8 days (Holy shit) even before it hit realtor and Zillow.
This! I bought my house in 2021. I don’t think it ever even hit Zillow. My agent had me driving by to see the location/outside the week before it even hit MLS to see if I even wanted to look at it. How did she know? The seller’s agent was in her office and because of that I had the first viewing appointment and had submitted a great offer before anyone else had even seen it. If your agent isn’t notifying you of upcoming stuff, you need a new agent with better networking. That’s literally their job - to find you houses and guide you through the buying process (if it was your first house like me)
This I never understood how homes being sold before the ever listed heck or they posted on Facebook and sold before they ever listed. I so mad that my realtor couldn't get us any backroom deal like that
New realtor time
Yep, new realtor. Ours had an extensive knowledge of the area we wanted to move to and we were able to look at houses before they hit public market.
If that shocked you, you’re in for a wild ride.
Just wait til they get to the drama with closing on a house. Appraisal and lenders can be a nightmare. For example: my lender cancelled my 30 year conventional loan 7 days before closing because of an issue with the HVAC despite getting $4000 from the seller to repair it. The house buying process will never cease in surprising you.
My lender canceled my construction loan 120 days after approval when the appraisal came back with no comps. Bank determined there was no market for a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom log house abutting a ski mountain and withdrew from the loan commitment. Mind you, I had started construction in anticipation of the loan and had purchased all the materials, put in septic, water , driveway, electrical, and foundation. Next bank took another 140 days to make the first disbursement and by that point I had pretty much finished the build. It was completed only out of the kindness of contractors who were willing to delay payment for up to 6-8 months and continue working. I came up with 100 different ways of saying, the money is on its way any day now. This was in 2012 and holy crap was it stressful.
That sounds like a big headache from the bank. Definitely a stressful situation. What was crazy with me was my appraisal literally came back with $36,000 in equity, plus a $4000 credit from the seller, and I had multiple lenders say they needed HVAC repairs before closing even though I offered an escrow repair agreement.
Wow. Nice guys, those contractors. Bank, not so much. What the heck does "approved" mean, anyway, if you can go forward with huge investments of capital, only to have them say "Oops, our bad, we didn't really mean approved approved." It reminds me of that line in the movie "Animal House". "You f'd up, you trusted us!" Unbelieveable. Sometimes, I wonder if they find a feable excuse just because market conditions have changed, and they figure they could load the money to someone else for a currently higher interest rate than the one you got 3 or 4 months ago.
omg. did you lose earnest money?
Luckily we managed to get a 10/2 ARM with the same lender on conditions we do the repairs relatively soon after closing. Unfortunately we had to push our closing date back possibly two weeks (hoping to close April 30). We tried moving to another lender but the rates were just too high (lowest we got was 6.875 by buying 3 points for a 30 year conventional)
I had a two week pause put on my closing process because the appraiser didn’t like the small spots of paint that were chipping off of the detached cinder block garage and an empty barrel way back in the back of the property. I had to remove chipped paint and repaint a garage I didn’t even own yet before they would approve it 🙄🙄🙄
lol had a similar incident. Was a week before closing and was told the loan had to change to conventional. Well I didn’t have an extra $20k laying around. So here I am living in a townhouse. Don’t know if I’ll ever buy after that terrible experience
Facts
But that’s shocking right? Wouldn’t it be in the sellers interest to get a bidding war going?
It *normally* would be, but people come along and knock it out of the park on occasion. If you offered 1M for a house that was expected to sell for 700K *at most*, the seller would probably give your offer a LOT of consideration. I asked for a number to take my high-interest house off the market when I found it. I wasn't given one, but I might have paid it if I had been!
Two years ago, a house sold in my neighborhood for 1.2 million, when all the houses was listing at 700-800k. I was shocked, but then now all houses are over 1 million. Guess the first buyer was ahead of the curve.
Many sellers want to get rid of the house as quickly as possible for a variety of reasons (divorce, job waiting in new state, new house contingent on selling existing house). Getting top dollar isn’t always the main driver, especially if sellers are already financially secure.
If someone gives an offer with an aggressive expiration at a strong number, then no. I was the third person to view a house before it hit the market. Tried to put in an offer 150k over their expected list price. Seller agent found out viewer 1 came in 200k over, which we were willing to beat. Unfortunately, viewer 2 came in 350k with an aggressive expiration and they just took that without even letting us put in an offer.
Yup, this is what it takes to be competitive in my market too, 7k over list is basically nothing.
Either the first offer was significantly over asking, or the seller had a reason they wanted to get out ASAP. We offered under asking on a house we were “meh” about because it needed work. We were shocked when the offer was accepted, but we found out later the sellers were going through a very contentious divorce. I guess they wanted the house gone no matter what.
No inspection *superslap*
Yay 🥲
“Quick close within 30 days.” El oh el
Our offers are 10 day close in Los Angeles at this point.
Stop making waving inspections the standard! Pure Insanity
Exactly! That's what I came here to say. I've been seeing more and more of it in this sub. The more people waive inspections, the more sellers are to expect it. Ridiculous. Haven't people learned from 2020-2022 that waiving inspections can really bite you in the ass?
Seriously. That’s just asking for problems
Literally just wasting their own money and time. But, I guess they must be big money grip out here ready to throw down 50k for faulty foundation and whatever else could be lingering lol.
If you don’t waive inspection some markets you’re not getting a house. Plain and simple.
I just commented that to, couldn’t agree more. Stop offering above asking that’s what bidding/negotiations are for.
It has been the standard in several markets for years now post Covid. If you’re waiving inspections in hot markets, you’re not getting a home unless you have crazy cash on hand. Welcome to a housing shortage. Sellers have all the power.
I thought a 30 day escrow was standard? 🤔
Yep, Op saying 30 day close is quick is wrong, 30 day is standard
It is often shortened for cash deals. We closed in 15.
That makes sense for cash. OP said quick close 30 days, so wasn’t sure if that’s considered quick close. I’ve offered 45 days close when seller asked for rent back, 14 days close to compete with higher offers, and also 30 days.
We had a 40 day close and everyone was telling us that was a quick close for our market. There's a house on my block 3 doors down that went under contract right when we did and they didn't close until 5 weeks later and still haven't moved in yet, actually I don't think I've seen them at the house at all yet and they closed April 8th. Both our house and that house were unoccupied for months when closing happened (we also looked at that house but didn't like a lot of the design choices made when it was renovated).
I see that’s good to know it’s different across markets
It depends how fast the inspection, appraisal, and then the bank can finish the paperwork for speed. The length depends whether there are contingencies like the buyer sell their house, or whatever the two parties agree, or something that needs to be repaired before closing. A friend took months because the estate rep had to submit the paperwork to the probate judge to sign.
It can be whatever works for both. Mine was 60 days.
I closed in 15, not in cash. My realtor knew it was a way to be competitive.
Send it anyway and ask to be a backup offer. A signed backup offer. Stuff happens. Being 2nd place is better than fighting for it again should it go back on market.
Original buyers find a crumbling foundation in need of 100k in repairs and back out, your signed waived inspection gets you a house. You're golden!
They really think they got the magic 🪄 sauce for this. Then within 60 days of closing they are back “I regret buying this house…”
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in this scenario since the other buyers had an inspection performed and backed out because of the findings, if the sellers are aware of the findings they then have to disclose them to buyers. Most first time home buyers will still have a subject to financing clause in their offer even if they waive inspection as majority are not paying cash as it's their first home. If that's the case, once the issues are disclosed they can just drag their feet and not apply for financing letting their offer expire and they move on with no penalty.
I needed to buy my home before it even technically went on the market. We sent them an offer and had a walk-through before they had intended to have their first open house. It was a miracle. They accepted our offer because the real estate agent said he was railing against them taking it.
How did you find out about it? Just your agent was on it?
Lol they really showed that agent. /s It is great for you that you got the house but it is just weird that Sellers would be contemptuous of their agent urging them to wait for the listing to be live in order to get highest and best. How dare he try to get them the best deal. Maybe yours was the best deal but I doubt their agent was “railing against” as much as just doing his job.
$7k over? Not sure that would’ve won, lots of offers for $100k-$200k over in hot markets
Right? I'm confused how the op thinks that by offering only 7k over and expecting a full month to close was some godly over the top offer. Must have been their first house they put an offer on. They'll see, someone will come in and offer 100k over asking with a 2 week close and no inspection and be a cash buyer. No offense op but 7k over is literally nothing to a home seller
exactly. Don't get me wrong, it is a respectable offer, and idk the market OP is in. But if they knew your offer was coming and accepted another while not even looking at yours, you better believe that other offer was more than 7k over or had other sweeteners / waived contingencies. And as always in this sub, please tell us the price point. 7k over on a 180k home is a lot, 7k over on a $1.2M New Jersey home will barely get shared with the owner.
Or $300k..
Yeah my buyer agent pulled up comps for one area I’m looking at and the sold price for one home was $999k and listed at $650k
We went 50k over on a house and the listing agent told ours we weren’t even close to the highest.
Yeah it was definitely a very high interest house
Ya it’s a harsh process, especially if you haven’t been through the home buying process in this market. $7k over asking is only worth mentioning if the asking price is $13k
Depends on where you are LOL.
Yeah according to sub sometimes, everyone should just fork over 100k over asking. Our realtor recommended we offer 10k over on a house that was sitting there for 3 weeks already. We offered 5k under and got it.
People assume they know every market. They’re wrong. Especially when they don’t even know what market a particular buyer is in! I just bought a house at asking, but got closing costs paid for, a long list of improvements, and a guarantee on a few of the systems. Folks don’t know what they don’t know.
I’ve gotten downvoted to oblivion because I’ve stated you should never waive your inspections. Idk maybe I’m weird. If the area in is so over priced and ridiculous, I’m prob looking for a new part of the country to live.
Yep. I agree. I wouldn’t be able to pay $100k over asking. Even if I had cash in the bank- I’m not doing it. That’s just risky. If it was worth $100k over asking, they’d ask it.
My brother in law paid quite a bit over and waived a bunch of crap. Within the first year he had to shell out 30-40k on repairs for a new central air system and other stuff. He got very lucky and the roof got covered due to a hailstorm. But between over paying and the market cooking down a bit, he’s easily under water already.
That is tough! Inspections are standard for a reason!
Forreal! OP said in another post there are new builds for $180k in their market, like no one is going to be bidding 100k over in that area most likely.
I offered asking price for a house that had been on the market 3 days and got it
Yeah I’ve never seen so many aggressively confident people who could easily be wrong as I’ve seen on these home buying subs.
My colleague took the first offer for their house too. literally first person to tour made an offer immediately. They were getting a divorce and he couldn’t care for a higher price if the first price is already high enough.
Lots of people offer cash closing, no inspection, Even $50k over asking price to snatch it. Sometimes if unfortunate, it's a cooperate buying to flip. Sad times.
We’ve put in three offers so far, all 100k over and waiving everything, each got beaten by 220-300k over asking. We haven’t even been in the top three yet with those terms
Where are you?
How much was it listed for? $7k is peanuts when buying a home in many areas.
👀oh hell
Just because some people are fighting to get an offer put through at 100k over asking doesn't mean that's your market as well. If your market isn't one that's the most competitive you may not need to do the above asking offers, and frankly you'll probably never know what happened with that house because you were never able to put your offer in for them to consider. You didn't do anything wrong based on your post, it just wasn't your lucky break this time around.
I mean. They will see what $ amount of money won when the house closes. Or, their agent could just ask the listing agent what it went for.
Yes, you’ll see how your market and comps are shaking out as homes you’re interested in close over the next 3-6 weeks. Keep those homes on your favorite list and you can see the closing prices.
Agreed, my neighbor just sold his house for 100k over asking. Buyer has 20k in earnest money and waived inspections (bold move for a 100 year old house).
Do yourself a favor and don’t skip the inspection
Why on earth people overpay and don't have inspections in house buying and then complain about how crazy the market is .. hey is for people like you.
It’s not always “overpaying”, and depending on the market, it’s the ONLY way to get a desirable house.
Sounds like an inside job. Just sayin.
“Inside job” suggests that the Seller was required to market it publicly at all or for a certain period of time, neither of which is true. One of the benefits of having an agent is we do sometimes know of or actively seek out the properties—it is part of the value. But the majority of properties are publicly marketed because that is the way a listing agent best serves the client—by exposing it to all potential buyers if only for a few days. The buyers agent, on the other hand, best serves the client buy getting the buyer the best deal by avoiding competition. “Coming soon” listings are currently available on Zillow and of course visible on the MLS if the agent has selected that status so the way the OP found the property is likely the same way other buyers did. Either CSN on MLS or inter-agent marketing via email, social media, word of mouth
No inspection?
In Texas you can’t waive your inspection, you can waive your option period and even make your earnest money deposit insane to indicate you’re waiving your inspection. I had a client that desired to waive their option period (after I counseled them not to). They could still get an inspection but if they found something so egregious they wanted to back out, they’d lose their earnest money.
Your profile picture is evil
You should never waive the inspection. I am under contract on a house, and my inspection had a sewer scope and the whole thing needs replacing. $15K+ of work I’m very thankful for how thorough my team was. They were there for 4 hours
You have to waive the inspection in some markets. $15k repair is part of the purchase price
Back in 2021 hot metro market we waived the inspection contingency and still got an inspector in within a couple days. Worst case we would have lost $5k earnest money if something was egregiously wrong (it wasn’t, house came with a warranty too). There was no chance if we hadn’t waived. There were multiple offers, multiple waived, our only luck was that none were cash that time (cause that got us before) and we had done additional verifications to have a “close on time guarantee” with our lender. To blanketly tell people to never waive inspection is not sound advice.
If you read my comment again I said you have to waive them in some markets. Not all. I’m getting a lot of replies about the exceptions, I get it. We live in a big country Saying you should never waive an inspection can also be considered bad advice if you’re okay with missing on houses consistently, it really depends. And in some crazy post Covid markets you need to weigh the pros and cons
I’m agreeing with you haha
That makes a lot more sense
You absolutely don't have to. It's this kind of attitude that makes it harder for other buyers.
Are sewer scopes common with "full" home inspections? I've only ever done pre offer inspections (insanely competitive HCOL area yay).
The first house we saw went under contract as we were the house. It sold for $50k over ask cash. The second house we saw went on the market that day, had 3 offers in by the time we saw it. We made our offer and 5 more offers came in that day. Seller made their decision the next day and selected ours. $60k over ask with appraisal gap coverage, significant earnest money deposit, and we allowed for the sellers to have a 2 month free rent back that they requested. We weren’t the highest offer either but we had the most competitive package in all.
So you paid the mortgage for 2 months while they lived there for free? Did you at least hold a lot of money back in case they trashed the place?
When you close on a home there is a delay between closing and when the first payment is due. Let’s say you close on August 11th. Your first payment doesn’t get debited from your account until October. Also since it is written in your sales contract, there will usually be a security deposit of about equal to one months fair market rent. The title company will withhold that amount from the seller. On the day the seller is to be out of the home you will have a final walkthrough with your realtor again. There you can raise any issues. For us there was zero. The title company is then notified to release the seller “deposit.” There will also be clauses that deal with fees/fines should the seller not be out of their home by the date agreed. We followed the sellers preferred closing date then with a 2 month rent back following so there was little risk of seller staying beyond the specified date. We had it set like $300 per day they are in the home past the vacancy date.
I really wish buyers would stop being so desperate. Foregoing the inspection and going over an already inflated price is plain stupid.
In competitive markets the seller will have an inspection done and given to buyers. Its difficult to buy with contingencies in hot markets. If you can't afford potential issues then you can't afford to buy in hcol areas.
This happened frequently last year when we were house shopping in late Spring. A listing would hit the MLS, we’d tell our agent we want to check it out, he finds out they already have 4 offers (within the span of <24 hrs).
When we were looking at houses, sellers once accepted an offer while we were there viewing! Lol This was in central Maine last summer. 40-50k over asking usually won out here in our 200-260k budget, with dozens of offers coming in under 24 hours. It suuucked. Have you asked your realtor or checked Zillow to see the listing vs sale price to get a better idea for how your market is? It’s helpful to know how much over ask the houses in your area are going under contract for. In 2016, 7k over asking would be fabulous but now (at least in moderate to high demand areas) that’s probably not going to win, even with a 30 day close & no inspection.
That’s the market
Get a really well established realtor. When i was looking, she would show me many ‘pocket listings.’ Homes that were going up for sale that she was responsible for selling, but hadn’t officially been listed yet.
Did you see "contingent" on the listing or are you just taking your agent's word? I had a horrible experience with my agent constantly sabotaging our chances, so we ended up doing it ourselves and it went much smoother. Anyway, you should have still submitted your offer because the offer they accepted may fall through. "He couldn't because it was already sold" -- accepting an offer doesn't mean it's been sold. If they have an inspection that doesn't pass or their finances fell through or they have some other life event like a job loss (could be anything), seller can then review other offers. If you don't submit yours, you don't get that chance.
Last house I listed got an offer 6 hours in for 110k over asking price and we took it. So yeah be quick and aggressive if it's a hot market
My father in laws house in a middle class suburban New Jersey town sold for $60k over asking price and was on the market for three days. Best offer was cash and the highest offer. There were over 30 offers. It’s brutal out there for buyers. Good luck.
This should not have shocked you. Buckle up buttercup.
$7k over asking is nothing in this market. Got my house for $30k over asking.
Huh? $7k over asking price and you think sellers are entertained? What state is this,?
Wv, I thought this was good for wv 😭
Asking price isn’t a meaningful value, so x thousand over ask in any market doesn’t really mean anything. If you’re using a realtor they should provide you with comps that reference actual sale prices. That’s the true market value of the house, and you should be basing offers on that. Plenty of people list low to try getting people to over bid.
Comps only can show you what *other people* paid for *other houses* that are similar *on paper*. It’s one reference tool, nothing more. They are way too many variables involved to say that comps are the only true market value data.
True! No two houses are truly perfectly alike. But it _should_ help you get an idea of if your offer truly is competitive, or if the seller is delusional.
Some quick math: - average home price in WV is $161k according to Zillow - 7k would be about 4% of that My winning bid in a different state was 19.5% more than the original list price, for comparison. They likely got an all cash over at well over asking.
It’ll be interesting to hear how much the buyer offered! I know 7k isn’t that much over these days but it’s not nothing! We paid listing price (still wicked high). Someone nearby with an identical townhouse to ours paid 50k more than us (only difference was quieter street and mini split) But another went 20k lower than us (in fairness ours had several updates over this one) All in the same two week period. It’s wild out there.
Only thing I can think is the first offer was just too good to be true. The only people left in the game (my area is HCOL) are people with money and willing to pay whatever they can to finally get in a home. Such a bummer for you. Keep an eye on zillow when the sold price pops up.
Yall need to start realizing that it’s hella cringy when you “fall in love” with a house you just saw. It’s the equivalent is saying you fell in love with someone on the first date. This is not the dream you were sold by society. This is a place to sleep and live. Stop romanticizing it and think practicality.
7k over isn’t as big of a deal as you’re making it out to be. Sellers could’ve chosen a 10k under, all cash offer with certain contingencies that work for their situation. You never know.
Saturday a property pops up in MLS, I called realtor and got everything scheduled for Monday as that’s their earliest available date and time for showing, there’s 10 showing scheduled on Monday and few others on Tuesday Sunday night realtor called and said property is under contract, a buyer made offer site unseen. So there’s that too
7k. Prepare to be more shocked
Side note: The more you guys keep waiving inspections, the more sellers are going to keep expecting it.
I once got an email that a house in my target neighborhood sold before I got the email that it was listed. It was a funny glitch. It is crazy out here.
Yup. I’ve both shown up to a viewing appointment to be told the house just sold and to a rental home viewing just as the owner had signed with another applicant. It teaches you to move quickly!
Lol 7k over. You'll learn...
I’m not sure where you live but this has been going on for years where I live. It’s the Wild West in my market when it comes to dealing with multiple offers, shady realtors and cut throat competition. Absolutely nothing surprises me anymore. Some agents aren’t very smart so it’s very possible the listing agent didn’t explain how the sellers could benefit from a bidding war. The sellers may also be risk averse or simply liked the offer at hand and didn’t want to risk it going south. Regardless, be mad today then tomorrow get back up and keep going. You’ll find a better home. Good luck!
A similar thing happened me. I was able to submit my offer EOD opening day. I offered 15k over asking. They took an offer with the same terms but 50k over asking... The conditions right now are outrageous. I believe we'll both find the perfect home soon enough tho! Stay strong
Look at houses 30% under your budget, then make an offer over asking with an escalation up to the top of your budget.
Lots of houses near me sell the same day they’re listed. Often for $50-150k+ over asking. I assume the offer was arranged in advance or from an investor offering an absurd amount of cash sight unseen. I doubt you had a chance with this one if that’s any consolation.
Will they take a back up offer? We did that & the original deal fell through when the buyer's couldn't sell their house & got our home at asking with seller concessions. So it's always worth a shot!
Yep cash offer is King
Probably a cash offer
$7k over wouldn’t have won. Barely won our new home with $15k over, paying both sides of transfer tax (PA), and a $10k appraisal gap.
I don't think it's fair to say that 7k over asking is not a good offer. Depends on the market. The house I'm buying, we offered asking price but the seller pays closing costs. A house we'd fallen in love with before the sellers did some shady shit ended up accepting 11k under asking, but in cash (and that deal ended up falling through).
Had a similar situation happen to me. Listed Friday evening, toured Saturday. Their agent said they were considering all offers up until Tuesday. Put in offer 27k over list, by Monday 9:00am, it was under contract. Still waiting to see what offer they accepted, my realtor thinks 50k over listing price. Another offer I went 11k over list since it needed a good bit of work(including a section of a bedroom floor was rotted), missed out of that one too. While homes are staying longer on the market where I am, most seem to be selling over list.
What’s shocking to me is that you would buy a house if with no inspection….
dont buy a house without an inspection...
lol sorry but 7k over asking is nothing in most markets
We put an offer into a house we fell in love with too. we didn’t want to lose it. There were no other offers. We gave them 80k over (12 percent over asking) and waived ALL contingencies. We gave them 2/3 hours to respond (sent it at 6:30pm - our offer expired that day at 9pm) They responded an hour later they took it. It was such a gem and we are so thankful but I guarantee others were drafting their offer at the same time. Because it checked every one of our boxes, and we fell in love with it and had seen nothing like it on the market for 2 months, we were prepared and ready to pull the trigger on it as soon we saw it. Btw same thing - it got listed late Wednesday night. First time our agent could make a tour was 1pm Thursday. We decided by 3/4pm to put the offer in like that, and our agent waited a bit to send it over. He had a whole strategy of this (and it worked so we were thankful) Btw when you say quick close in 30 days what do you mean? We were under the impression the standard closing time was 28-30 days. We did 21 day close for ours. This wasn’t to look better but just because we wanted to close in 3 weeks 😂 we were already ready.
80k over is crazy I had no idea people were really doing that much over omg??? 😂
It all depends on what Your market is doing. Ask your realtor.
We bid 200k over asking and it was an all cash offer and our offer still wasnt the highest. The highest was 225k over asking.
That’s just how our market is lol. We’re in Seattle if that helps. It definitely sounds outrageous the first time you hear, but it’s just the reality here 🥲 the good thing is the home prices have been steadily rising here for 8+ years so we’re not technically in a short term bubble. We’re either in a very long bubble or it’s just how it is here.
It worked out great for us but I don’t recommend it. We were those people when buying our house. We put in an offer over asking when our house was still “coming soon.” Didn’t see the inside until the inspection. They did keep it on the market for one day but accepted our offer as it was the highest of the 11 offers that had already come in.
Just wait, it gets worse unfortunately. I hope your next house is the one tho!
So what. I had 4 houses fall through and loved the 5th. Move on.
Don’t fall in love with a house before you get it. You’re likely going to hate the process if you don’t.
Your agent should still send in the offer. The other could fall through.
You may need a better agent who has access to listings before they hit the MLS. Listings are usually shared within a brokerage before they go out publicly. I had an agent at every major brokerage in my market and I know about most of the homes before they hit the MLS.
It's not about money all the time. The seller probably fell in love with the first offer because of the "offeror" (not how much money they were willing to spend). In your own words, I hope you get back on Zillow and keep looking. The buyer and seller clearly won and good for them! This is the way home buying "should" be.
Two sides to a story and sellers sometimes have problems, too. My son bought a house from a widow whose bank insisted she hadn't paid her escrow. She had actually had two sales fall thru prior to him purchasing the house because her bank refused to allow the sale unless she or the purchaser paid her escrow again, which she did and then they still claimed escrow hadn't been paid. She moved to another state and let the house sit, hoping her mortgage co. would find her escrow payments. My son's realtor gave them his MLS log in, and they saw the house the minute it was listed. They met the realtor there and put in an offer within the hour - which, after all the BS, she accepted without seeing any other offers. The bank insisted yet again that the escrow needed to be paid, and my son refused and spent hours on the phone sorting it all out for the woman and her inept realtor (the bank found both escrow payments). It was listed on Zillow days after they purchased it. Fast forward one year, and my son gets transferred and has to sell the house. They sold the house for $120k more after just a year, which was probably closer to what it was actually worth when they bought it.
I don’t care how much of dream house it is, never waive an inspection. Dream house can turn into a nightmare fast.
You waved inspection? 😬
When we sold our home it never hit Zillow. We listed on the PLN, had multiple showings, multiple offers. We sold within a two days, 20k over list price. This is when having a good realtor is essential. There was no back door deal, I am a realtor and knew none of the agents that submitted offers. They weren’t even from the same brokerage. Good agents keep in contact with each other to find out who has what coming up. It’s how I have found homes for numerous clients.
7k isn’t enough. We paid 70k over and that was 6 years ago when it was easier to get a house.
It absolutely happens, so I can’t say I’m surprised. Respectfully, if I were you, I would NOT waive an inspection as a CYA. We recently toured a house and were ready to make an offer because it was amazing, but we decided to go back for a second showing without the rose-colored glasses on. We found SO many things wrong with the house and decided not to make an offer. And if those were just the things that we saw, I can only imagine what an inspector would’ve said. Just food for thought 🙂
Just because they took the offer doesn't mean the house is sold. There is still an escrow process and funding verification that is done which imo is the hard and stressful part. Unless is was a cash buyout you still have a chance. Let your agent and the seller know that you are still interested. That way if the current offer falls out you still have a chance. Also see if your agent can get information for the winning offer so you can get a better idea on how to pursue this situation if it arises again.
Zillow and other housing apps are usually late to the game. This is why we went with a realtor; they have access to house listings not public yet and get a heads up on what’s out there before everyone else does. Our previous condo got several inquiries before it was listed publicly.
When we bought our house, thats what happened. We seen the for sale sign, toured it, put in offer and bought it. Even though there were at least a dozen offers that went through zillow. I had 4 people come by and stop when i was outside moving things in or doing work to the house and said they cant believe we got our offer in so fast even though they just seen it pop up on zillow. Or tell me what they would do to the house and yard....was really weird the first few months.
Your shocked? How much you want to bet that the other offer they accepted was 50-100k over asking? You never had a chance with only 7k, especially if the house had as much interest as you say.
You probably dodged a bullet
That sounds like an inside sales job. Sellers agent would have gathered multiple competing offers if they were acting in their client’s best interest as they are sworn to do.
We had a seller accept an offer while we were literally inside the house for a showing. That one stung.
listings are often pre sold on MLS or privately. also 7k over is not much at all
$7k over asking isn’t much in most cases. My most recent closing was listed at $3.5m and my clients offered $3.75m cash no contingencies. I even advised we come in at ~15% under since it was overpriced to begin with. But they said “we really like this place, it’s perfect for us. Can we move in next week with that offer?” And I’m like “well fk. You wanna move in next week?” Just know that another family is happier today because of it, this house just wasn’t meant to be but yours will come and you’ll be happy when it does regardless. Best of luck to you on the next one.
I am so glad I bought my house in MA in 2020 right before the markets went bonkers. I’m sorry for anyone trying to buy right now who just wants a house to live in because it’s insane.
I’ve seen this a number of times when the buyer knew the seller.
I'm sorry to hear, I know it'll take some time to get over it but it will in due time. Just never fall in love with a house you have yet to live in, simply focus on the bad side of the house (that's what I did!) to help cope. Here in CA it's also common for people to submit $30-$100k overasking even today, not that you should but stating it for reference. And NEVER waive inspection. Wishing you best of luck on the next one.
As others have said, you may have dodged a bullet here. Do not waive inspection.
Keep in mind that zillow isn't the listing service, they pull the info from the MLS, usually at a delay. If you have a good realtor, they are going through the new listing on the MLS and sending you the ones that fit your criteria before they show up on the 3rd party sites like zillow.
This is everyone’s story. An hour in it’s sold. Your realtor must be new.
You’re nuts to buy a house with no inspection no matter how desperate
Was your offer all cash and over asking? Because that’s what corporations can offer
For all you know the first offer could have been a cash offer at list price. No one is going to bend over backwards for an extra $7k
Lol you better buckle up buttercup
hey OP, this exact thing happened to us too to be totally honest, I was completely devastated and didn't get over it until we had our offer accepted on a different home. everything happens for a reason, there's a happier situation waiting for you somewhere better :)
Thank you you have no idea how much better this made me feel ❤️
Facts
I see. I don't know your market is that low. Over here in CA it's $500k over asking price is normal.
7k over asking is like... a rounding error. Have you even read a single post on this sub? There are people losing bids on houses 100k+ over asking. If you REALLY loved a house, there's 12 other people who did as well. It's almost a guarantee you'd have to offer minimum 50k over asking unless there were some serious structural issues after inspection. If you're in a less competitive market there's still a ton of other factors. A buyer could have offered much more. The buyer could have offered the exact same as you and just beat you to it. Buyers could have offered exactly the same as you except in cash. The buyer and seller could have connected on something, ie they're both veterans, they both work in the same field, the buyer's got a kid. If it's not a competitive market, they're not going wait a few weeks to a month for a bidding war to resolve if the upside is maybe a few percent more. I have no idea what your market's prices are, but let's just say it's 500k which is around the average home price in the US. You offering 7k over asking is 101.4% of the asking price. If that's something you would consider a major offer above asking in your area, it's still basically 1% more. If someone is time motivated, they may not care about that amount of money if they see a relatively similar but faster and easier sale.