Those of you making offers on homes right now, what are you seeing? (Seattle: short sale, foreclosure)

[homesinseattle]

From my perspective, there was a very slight cooling period December-January, which mainly manifested as not quite as many offers at review date time. Now things seem to be red hot again: multiple offers, pre-inspections, escalation clauses creeping north and south into Snohomish and Pierce Counties.

Hardly any homes survive the review period in Seattle and the Eastside, the ones that do seem to have wonky floorplans, poor locations or are truly overpriced. Cash offers continue to be common, as are rent back after closing offers from potential buyers to sellers. Non cash buyers are increasingly using "appraisal gap" clauses or waiving the finance contingency altogether, even though they are financed.

Have you succeeded recently in locking in a home or failed in ways that taught you valuable lessons for your next offer?

[tommy64]

I lost a purchase late last year over a health hazard flagged by the appraiser. The underwriter demanded that the seller remediate a fungus issue in the laundry room by a certified service. The seller refused. I offered to pay for the service but the underwriter said "nope".

The attempted purchase before that unraveled over financing. The bank gave me a verbal estimate (no ratelock or closing cost worksheet) with the approval letter. I got the contract on the house and notified the lender. They sent back documents with a much higher rate and closing costs than what I was initially told. The increased rate and borrowing costs would have killed the cashflow (was going to operate it as rental) so I opted out.

The one before that was a short sale. Got the contract, everything looked good but the heloc lender and short sale lender were going back and forth for 9+ months - I gave up and bought a different house with cash (I wanted to get something I could close on before the market ran too far ahead of me).

The one before that was a foreclosure. Got the contract but opted out to chase the one above that dragged on and on...

The takeaway: Cash Is King.

[leastprime]

Colleague of son, was competing with 26 other offers. March.

[Kayela]

Friend just bought a 1 bedroom condo last month - 23 offers. Other friends just closed last week, they'd been trying to buy something for 11 months, and finally got one.

[homesinseattle]

It would be helpful to tell the forum specifically what part of town you/your friends made offers.

[NTATL]

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

It would be helpful to tell the forum specifically what part of town you/your friends made offers.

Yes, and at what price point? We are likely moving to Seattle this summer and were planning on renting before buying. But based on this thread, we might need to start looking to purchase as soon as we hit the ground?

[thatguy950]

Originally Posted by NTATL

Yes, and at what price point? We are likely moving to Seattle this summer and were planning on renting before buying. But based on this thread, we might need to start looking to purchase as soon as we hit the ground?

I wouldn't, just hold out until the next Seattle crash, shouldn't be too terribly long now with the insane rate at which they're overbuilding all over the area and a few of the big hitter Seattle companies are struggling/laying people off.

Don't believe the propaganda about region-wide "low supply," anyone with half a brain can see how much new construction there has been over the last few years and connect the dots

[Sunflower9090]

Not my own experience but my coworker just finallly bought a house after losing 5 bidding wars. Healthy budget of 1M, but they were looking at the competitive neighborhood of Phinny ridge and lost to a lot of cash buyers. Heard crazy things like "no one does inspection these days", " house was bid up $200k over asking price"...

[Canamlian]

Been looking at houses in the $1-1.3M range in neighborhoods close to the I-5/520 interchange. Put offers on two houses, didn't get either one.

One in north Capitol Hill was listed at $1M and went for $1.4M. 22 offers, 8 over $1.3M. Winner was not cash, but I assume offer was "cash-like".

Other in Montlake was listed at $1.1M and went for over $1.4M. 8 offers, at least 4 over $1.3M. Only one cash offer and it didn't win, but again I assume the winning offer was cash-like.

Yes, there was a lot of competition but both houses were also clearly underlisted so I wouldn't assume that houses are necessarily going for $300k+ over list. The Montlake house's comps from months ago were in the $1.3M range so a $1.1M list was just silly.

[Inkpoe]

Originally Posted by leastprime

Colleague of son, was competing with 26 other offers. March.

Wow, 26 offers. 22 offers, according to another poster. Is that par for the course now?

My mind is completely blown by how nuts the RE up in Seattle area is.