Suppose you’ve been looking for months for a home. Perhaps you’ve made offers but none have been accepted. Finally your agent calls to tell you that a house you bid on and lost to another buyer is back on the market. You have another chance to buy it. You should be excited, but instead you’re reluctant to make another offer.
The listing looked far more attractive to you when it was new on the market. While you didn’t relish making an offer in competition, it was encouraging to know that other buyers wanted the home too. Now, without the competition, you wonder if the listing is a good buy.
Psychology plays a big part in most home sales. Buyers like to know they’re getting a good house. There’s no bigger validation of a listing’s desirability than the market itself. Multiple offers are the homebuyers’ stamp of approval.
FIRST-TIME TIP: When a listing is back on the market (or BOM), it usually means that the property sold but that the deal fell apart. Or the property could have been temporarily withdrawn from the market. Before you make an offer on such a listing, find out why it’s back on the market.
The most common reason for a home to come back on the market is that defects are discovered during the buyer’s inspections. If this is the case, ask the listing agent if you can see copies of the reports. Find out if the seller is willing to negotiate on the inspection-related issues. You don’t want to buy a home that has serious structural problems. But if the problems are correctable, and you can negotiate a good deal with the seller, it may be worth your while to proceed.
Now that the real estate market is softening in some areas, there are more homes coming back on the market simply because the buyer had a change of heart. There may be nothing at all wrong with the house.
Following the precipitous drop in the stock, some home sale transactions fell apart because the buyers lost a good portion of their down payment money when stock prices dropped. Some buyers, whose net worth was severely diminished by the steep decline in the NASDAQ, backed out of deals to buy expensive properties and put their home buying plans on hold.
A listing that is BOM may offer a great opportunity. Often these homes sell for less the second time around. One of the reasons for this is that it can be difficult for a listing agent to rekindle buyer enthusiasm in a listing when it’s re-marketed. Buyers and their agents tend to focus on the new listings. Also a stigma that something is wrong with the property, however erroneous it may be, can cause buyers to stay away.
Recently a home sale transaction fell apart in the Crocker Highlands section of Oakland. The first time around the sellers received 8 offers. But the buyer got cold feet and backed out. When the house sold the next time, the second buyer was able to negotiate a much lower price. Sellers who have been through the experience of having their home sale collapse are often more willing to negotiate on price and terms with the next buyer.
THE CLOSING: Some buyers shy away from listings that are back on the market because they don’t want to buy a home that someone else didn’t want. Don’t let this emotional response blind you from realizing what could be a great deal.
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Brought to You By Your Favorite Realtor,
Nancy Hankin
www.PalmSpringsHomesAndEstates.com
