Navigating Today's Real Estate Market: 3 Crucial Tips for Making a Winning Offer

Summary:
In this episode of Off the Record: Talking Real Estate with Joe and Makayla, we dive into the critical strategies you need to know when making an offer in the ever-changing Portland real estate market. With the market shifting by the month, being well-informed can make the difference between securing your dream home or missing out. Joe and Makayla discuss the importance of understanding seller concessions, the types of inspections you should prioritize, and how to gauge seller motivation effectively. Plus, stick around for a bonus tip that could give you the edge in this competitive market!
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Episode Highlights:
1.Seller Concessions Explained: Learn how seller concessions can significantly reduce your out-of-pocket costs at closing. Discover why offering slightly above the asking price could result in more cash in your pocket for upgrades or a lower mortgage payment.
2.Essential Inspections:Find out which inspections are critical to include in your offer, such as radon testing, sewer scopes, and invasive inspections. Learn why skipping these tests could cost you dearly in the long run.
3.Understanding Seller Motivation: Uncover the importance of seller motivation in shaping your offer. Learn how to gather intelligence on the seller's situation and use it to your advantage during negotiations.
4.Bonus Tip: Don't miss our extra piece of advice that could help you secure a home in a highly competitive market!
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Ready to make an informed offer on your next home? Visit LivPortland.com and check out the handy interest rate and payment calculator mentioned in today's episode. Stay ahead in the market by following our podcast and subscribing for more insider tips and expert advice!

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For more information about buying or selling in the Portland Metro real estate market, please visit www.LivPortland.com or contact us directly.

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Transcript

00:00:08:17 - 00:00:25:09
Speaker 1
Welcome to Off the Record talking real estate with Joe and McKayla. If you're interested in the Portland, Oregon real estate market and what the unvarnished inside scoop. You've come to the right place. Thanks for giving us a listen. All right. Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Hi, McKayla.

00:00:25:14 - 00:00:27:07
Speaker 2
Hi. How are you?

00:00:27:09 - 00:00:28:14
Speaker 1
I'm good. How are you doing?

00:00:28:19 - 00:00:29:19
Speaker 2
Good.

00:00:29:21 - 00:00:39:06
Speaker 1
Good. We we've gotten through the crazy, super hot weather, and now we're into kind of a lull. But it's nice, but it's so flippin muggy.

00:00:39:07 - 00:00:44:01
Speaker 2
I know, not loving it. It's kind of depressing. Really? Yeah.

00:00:44:03 - 00:00:47:15
Speaker 1
Yeah. I don't mind a little bit of the cloudy weather once in a while.

00:00:47:17 - 00:00:53:17
Speaker 2
But it's like dark. It's reminded me of winter. Yeah. Seasonal depression. We don't want that.

00:00:53:19 - 00:00:58:17
Speaker 1
No, we don't need that. But it's not even cows housing. It's not even fall yet.

00:00:58:19 - 00:01:02:06
Speaker 2
I know, I'm already dreading it. Well, it's a good day.

00:01:02:11 - 00:01:08:11
Speaker 1
It is a good day. And there's good news on the horizon for the real estate market. But today, tell me what we're talking about today.

00:01:08:13 - 00:01:30:03
Speaker 2
So today we're talking about three things you should know when making an offer in today's current market. So as most of you probably know, the real estate market around here tends to change by the month. Meaning trends changing about the month, sometimes even quicker than that or slower than that. But because of that, it's important for you to be well informed and savvy and know what's going on.

00:01:30:03 - 00:01:34:14
Speaker 2
That way, you can strategize with your broker on how to make the most competitive offer.

00:01:34:14 - 00:01:44:18
Speaker 1
Yeah, and I think it's important to know these things up front instead of just being informed about it in the heat of the moment. Right. When you're sitting there going, okay, we want to make an offer on this house.

00:01:44:20 - 00:02:01:00
Speaker 2
And there's so many questions and decisions to be made so quickly. I wish all of our clients could know these things well before we're actually sitting down and writing something up. So yeah, I'm excited about this list. I think it's like we really took the time to think about what's important. We didn't just throw out generic info.

00:02:01:04 - 00:02:03:08
Speaker 1
Yeah. And by way, we mean you.

00:02:03:10 - 00:02:06:13
Speaker 2
And we did it together.

00:02:06:15 - 00:02:25:04
Speaker 1
Nicely done. Mikayla. Yeah. No, I think this is critically important. And, you know, there's so many other factors that go into it. And there's so much for people to process where when they're in the heat of the moment of trying to buy a home. But here's a couple of nuggets for you that we thought would be helpful. And we've got a bonus one at the end, too.

00:02:25:09 - 00:02:46:21
Speaker 1
Yeah. So we're looking at number one. We're going to be talking about seller concessions and what that means and why that's important to you as a home buyer. Number two, we're going to be talking about the type of inspections and everything that goes into that and why that's important to have that included. And then number three seller motivation.

00:02:47:01 - 00:03:00:19
Speaker 1
And seller motivation is kind of a broad topic, but that encompasses all of the intelligence and information that you can get about what's going on with the seller, what their situation is, and factoring that into your offer.

00:03:00:21 - 00:03:23:16
Speaker 2
Well said, I agree. So I wanted to start with defining what seller concessions means, because I think that can sound like a jargony term to people who are new into the process. So seller concessions are also called seller contributions. So you might see both of those words and they are closing costs that the seller pays to help the buyer by reducing the amount of cash they have to bring to closing.

00:03:23:16 - 00:03:43:14
Speaker 2
So that can help buyer significantly. Like we just said, when bringing cash to the table at closing. And a lot of times, if there's a little bit of money left over after paying for closing costs, your lender can use that to buy down the current interest rate. And that's kind of a hot topic right now in today's market is our interest rate and how it's changing.

00:03:43:17 - 00:03:53:04
Speaker 2
So if you have a little cash to pull that down, that can significantly help your monthly payment. Which leads us into topic number one that we're excited to tell you about.

00:03:53:06 - 00:04:28:05
Speaker 1
Yeah. So asking for seller concessions first. You know we talk about having more cash on hand. So let's say you made an offer at 600,000 and then bumped that offer up to 615 and asked the seller to credit you at closing $15,000. And let's say your closing cost are $20,000. Well, now, when you get to closing instead of having to write a check for your down payment plus the closing cost of $20,000, you're just going to have to write a check for your down payment.

00:04:28:06 - 00:04:34:13
Speaker 1
And $5,000. And what will you do with that extra $15,000?

00:04:34:15 - 00:04:37:15
Speaker 2
Buy furniture, match furniture.

00:04:37:17 - 00:05:01:16
Speaker 1
You know, maybe there's some repairs and upgrades and different things that you want to do with the house, but having cash in hand can be very significant to people. And, you know, a lot of people say, well, I'm just financing it in well over a 30 year mortgage. The change in year payment for that $20,000 is negligible compared to how much benefit you can get from that cash on hand.

00:05:01:16 - 00:05:22:19
Speaker 1
You know, that time money thing of being able to use that cash now versus having it just be out there and not available, so to speak. So it's one of the things that we see a lot of people do in these days. And let's say, you know, that the asking price is 600 and you offer 600, but you ask for $20,000 in closing cost.

00:05:22:20 - 00:05:29:01
Speaker 1
So your effective offer price is 580 now, but you're getting that $20,000 back.

00:05:29:03 - 00:05:49:15
Speaker 2
So we're seeing that scenario very commonly in today's market. You know homes are hanging out a little bit longer on the market. Sellers are feeling a little antsy. And so it is appropriate to be making those types of offers reasonably. Of course, it's never good to go in and ask for tons of concessions and offer way below the list price.

00:05:49:15 - 00:05:52:13
Speaker 2
That just kind of puts the sellers off, to be honest. And depends.

00:05:52:13 - 00:05:53:08
Speaker 1
On the situation.

00:05:53:08 - 00:06:18:11
Speaker 2
Though. But there's there's room for those types of things. And the difference in, you know, you having a lower or offer price. So again, let's go back to the 600,000 examples. If that's the asking price. And you offer, you know, 580,000, the difference in your monthly payment isn't huge like probably less than $100. But the difference in having that $20,000 in cash is huge.

00:06:18:13 - 00:06:41:15
Speaker 1
Yeah, that that's a big one. So you know, we talk about interest rate buy downs with that as well. So let's say hey I got furniture with my house. There's not going to be anything I need to do. Sure I'd love to have my closing costs paid for, but I'd rather have my payment be much lower. And we're going to post on live portland.com if you go to live portland.com and click on podcast.

00:06:41:17 - 00:07:21:11
Speaker 1
for this episode, we're going to post on there a handy dandy, graph that on one axis has the interest rate, on the other axis has price. And then the two will correlate to a payment so that you can see like in the using the example of a $600,000 purchase, let's say you've got 20% down. So the remaining amount how much are you going to pay on that at 7% versus if you buy the rate down to six and a half, or, you know, rates are at six and a half right now for a 30 year channel, and let's say you buy it down from six and a half to 6 or 5.75.

00:07:21:13 - 00:07:29:00
Speaker 1
What does that look like in the change of payment? I highly recommend you go to our website. Check that out because it's an eye opener.

00:07:29:00 - 00:07:41:07
Speaker 2
It really is. And I've played with it all the time for all of our clients, and it's extremely eye opening to just drop the interest rate a little bit and see what it does. And that is a difference in hundreds of dollars in your monthly payment.

00:07:41:09 - 00:07:47:13
Speaker 1
Right? And a lot of times that's the difference between affordable payment and something that's just out of your reach.

00:07:47:17 - 00:07:48:12
Speaker 2
Absolutely.

00:07:48:17 - 00:08:12:11
Speaker 1
So being able to get that seller concession of $15,000, 10,000, 20, whatever it is, you're going to be able to afford that home or get a much smaller payment, which I think more people my age are more concerned about payment. I feels like the younger generation is like, yeah, I'm good with that payment, but I need the cash for upgrading and doing this and doing that and all that.

00:08:12:11 - 00:08:17:09
Speaker 1
It's and that's probably just my experience, but it's really super interesting.

00:08:17:11 - 00:08:39:16
Speaker 2
I've noticed that as well. It seems like people, kids my age, my generation are less worried about the payment, but personally that is my biggest concern is the payment. Yeah. So yeah, but this is all case by case basis. So what's interesting about this is, you know, when you do identify a property that you love, one scenario's with your lender and your real estate broker.

00:08:39:16 - 00:08:48:11
Speaker 2
Because all of these, you know, we play around with the numbers all the time. And that's how you can figure out how much cash to bring to the table and what your monthly payment will look like.

00:08:48:13 - 00:08:52:04
Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly. So that's seller concessions. What's number two?

00:08:52:06 - 00:09:18:23
Speaker 2
Number two is extremely important. And again one of these conversations we don't have until we're physically writing up the offer. And it feels a little bit overwhelming. It's so important to specify what types of inspections you want when writing your offer. So what we call invasive inspections are identified as mold inspections, radon testing, and sewer scope testing. And those are all extremely important.

00:09:18:23 - 00:09:22:23
Speaker 2
We don't see mold testing at the time of the inspection as.

00:09:22:23 - 00:09:31:01
Speaker 1
More of after the inspection, when something's identified and they want to figure out is it mold or how much mold is it and what kind is it, and all that sort of stuff.

00:09:31:01 - 00:09:37:14
Speaker 2
Sure. And then alternative inspections, that's like septic. Well, am I missing anything?

00:09:37:14 - 00:09:39:08
Speaker 1
There's a handful of other ones, but.

00:09:39:10 - 00:09:40:09
Speaker 2
Those are the main.

00:09:40:09 - 00:10:03:08
Speaker 1
Yeah, those are the two main ones. We see quite a bit of the time. We still have some people that are like, oh, do I need to do those inspections? Well, you don't have to. But let's say you move in, you're in a rural property in the septic. All of a sudden you figure out six months in the septic shock, you can't go back to the old seller and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, you sold me.

00:10:03:08 - 00:10:08:04
Speaker 1
It's a done deal, right? So doing your inspections upfront is incredibly important.

00:10:08:06 - 00:10:24:09
Speaker 2
And I'm always educating people. We are always educating people on what radon is. Yeah. And it is a problem if there is radon prevalent in your house. And it happens when the home is shut, it's most commonly in buildings and homes, not as much outside.

00:10:24:09 - 00:10:25:09
Speaker 1
It comes up from the ground.

00:10:25:11 - 00:10:35:03
Speaker 2
But that affects your lungs. I'm going to read something from the EPA because it is so important. Scary. I know I want to scare people into getting radon testing.

00:10:35:03 - 00:10:35:23
Speaker 1
You're scaring me, right?

00:10:36:00 - 00:10:39:04
Speaker 2
Because it's only under $20. It's worth it.

00:10:39:07 - 00:10:40:09
Speaker 1
Okay.

00:10:40:11 - 00:10:59:09
Speaker 2
Okay, they say it. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer for nonsmokers. And the second leading cause of lung cancer for the general population. The surgeon General and the EPA recommend testing for radon and reducing radon in homes that have high levels. Fix your home. If you're radon level is confirmed to be four liters thanks to leaders.

00:10:59:13 - 00:11:11:06
Speaker 2
And then if it's less than that, it generally is safe, but you want to minimize it as much as possible. If you smoke in your home has high rate on levels, your risk of lung cancer is especially high. So nothing to mess with.

00:11:11:08 - 00:11:24:04
Speaker 1
Yeah, and it's one of those things too, where it would be easy to say, oh, that's just a Northeast Portland thing, or that's just this part of town or that part of town, but it's not. It's so crazy in some of the places that you find it.

00:11:24:06 - 00:11:25:11
Speaker 2
It's very random. Yeah.

00:11:25:12 - 00:11:46:20
Speaker 1
It is so random. And the other item is sewer scopes. Right. We see we see mold and mold is not that big of a deal people. We live in the Pacific Northwest. Moisture here plus enclosed spaces that aren't ventilated. You're going to get mold and that's easily treatable. Same thing with radon. You know it is scary. You definitely want to test for it.

00:11:46:20 - 00:11:53:13
Speaker 1
And if it's high you want to have it remediated. But it's not the end of the world. And so we don't want to scare you guys too much.

00:11:53:18 - 00:11:56:08
Speaker 2
Right. But again, good to get tested.

00:11:56:09 - 00:11:57:15
Speaker 1
Great to get tested.

00:11:57:16 - 00:12:17:08
Speaker 2
And a lot of people will just assume that they can get these tests after the fact. But you have to write it in your offer. There's no really going back, because if seller is, for whatever reason, excited by the fact that you didn't ask for a sewer line or a sewer scope, maybe they choose your offer because of that, and that puts you in a very dangerous situation.

00:12:17:08 - 00:12:35:17
Speaker 2
Again, these aren't very expensive tests to have done, but yeah, well worth it. And sewer line stuff feels like it's coming up more and more. I don't know if I've just been dealing with it a lot lately, but it really does affect the resale of your home as well. So if there's a minor problem in the line, it will only get worse.

00:12:35:17 - 00:12:41:08
Speaker 2
Likely over time. So have that seller take care of it so you don't have to take on a huge item.

00:12:41:08 - 00:12:51:17
Speaker 1
You know, this is all relatively new stuff to McKayla. You know that when I was a baby realtor they did not have sewer scopes. They did not have radon test.

00:12:51:18 - 00:12:59:06
Speaker 2
I believe it because the way people look at me, especially when they're holding me, when I am telling them to do these things, is.

00:12:59:11 - 00:13:02:02
Speaker 1
We didn't need to do that in the last hour.

00:13:02:03 - 00:13:05:05
Speaker 2
Like you're insane. That's too invasive.

00:13:05:06 - 00:13:18:03
Speaker 1
But it's a pretty easy conversation to have. And once you start explaining, well, the sewer line could be five, ten, $15,000. Then all of a sudden people are like, well, let's get that thing checked. Exactly.

00:13:18:05 - 00:13:23:09
Speaker 2
And a lot of people think it's the city's responsibility, but it's not. So at least.

00:13:23:11 - 00:13:25:15
Speaker 1
It can be. But, you know.

00:13:25:16 - 00:13:26:07
Speaker 2
It's.

00:13:26:09 - 00:13:32:22
Speaker 1
The city has a way of getting out of most of. Yeah, situations that you think would be a city thing. Right.

00:13:32:22 - 00:13:46:19
Speaker 2
They really only do the main line that runs through the middle of the street. So technically homeowner is responsible from home all the way to the middle of the street. So if you have to ever dig up asphalt or sidewalk, that gets very, very expensive.

00:13:46:19 - 00:13:49:04
Speaker 1
Yeah. can I offer a PSA here?

00:13:49:04 - 00:13:49:15
Speaker 2
Yes.

00:13:49:15 - 00:14:16:23
Speaker 1
Public service announcement. Get a couple of bids to or hire a broker to represent you who has experience dealing with contractors or has a list of contractors like we do at Live Portland. We have a full book of contractors that we trust that we've used, and that we can recommend for these things. Like any large group, there's going to be some people that try to take advantage of you.

00:14:16:23 - 00:14:43:20
Speaker 1
Right? And unfortunately, just this week we had a home that needed some sewer work done, and one bid came back at $3,800. That's painful. Right? The second bid that the buyer got and I asked the buyers broker about this, you know, where did you find these guys? Oh, we just looked him up online. It was the first one that came up on our Google search, and they wanted $25,000.

00:14:43:22 - 00:14:44:20
Speaker 1
I tell you about that.

00:14:44:22 - 00:14:58:22
Speaker 2
No, you did not. Yeah. That is insane. Yeah, yeah. And exactly you're exactly right. Because when you Google something like sewer line repair, the top two companies are going to be paying the most to be at the top of the Google search sponsorship. Yeah.

00:14:59:00 - 00:15:14:16
Speaker 1
Most companies are very reputable and honest and that type of thing. But some like these guys wanted to do a full sewer line replacement. Oh my. When there was a, you know, and that's like 70ft when there was a five foot section that needed to be repaired.

00:15:14:18 - 00:15:15:18
Speaker 2
That's crazy.

00:15:15:20 - 00:15:16:14
Speaker 1
That's not.

00:15:16:16 - 00:15:17:11
Speaker 2
That's not.

00:15:17:11 - 00:15:22:07
Speaker 1
Ethical. We're going to have to replace the whole thing. Yeah. Did they not think we were going to get other bids right.

00:15:22:07 - 00:15:26:00
Speaker 2
Probably not. Some people probably know any who.

00:15:26:00 - 00:15:50:17
Speaker 1
So that's my PSA is getting multiple bids or you know, have your realtor recommend people that are trusted that have they've done business with before because it's dangerous out there when it comes to some of these things like sewer scope, septic, you know, well, even mold remediation, we've had, you know, a couple of times where buyers have had mold, people come in and they look at it and they're like, oh my gosh, this is $5,000 to repair.

00:15:50:18 - 00:16:13:04
Speaker 1
And then we have one of our contractors come out and they're like, and that's lumber mold. Yeah. And lumber mold is when the boards got moldy in the lumber yard. And then they got installed on the house. And sometimes that trace of just colors to the boards to make it look like mold. I'm probably boring the hell out of people right now.

00:16:13:04 - 00:16:23:10
Speaker 1
We just. But that's the lumber mold. And, Hello. It's not a problem. So we went from $5,000 to. No, check that off. That's not a problem.

00:16:23:14 - 00:16:52:09
Speaker 2
Exactly. So tip number three, when making an offer is to know what the seller's motivation is. So this is incredibly important for your broker to figure out for you. And this is a huge part of our job in order to craft an offer that is going to put you in number one position. so maybe the seller, you know, needs time after closing to move or to purchase another home, or you can offer them something called a rent back.

00:16:52:09 - 00:17:15:13
Speaker 2
And those aren't super common, but you know, every once in a while that is the seller's motivation. So that's what we're looking for. Maybe the seller wants a quick closing. You know, standard closings with single family homes are usually between what, like 30, 35 days, sometimes 40. But if we talk to your lender and we figure out that we can make that happen in 28 days, that also might be very exciting to the seller.

00:17:15:15 - 00:17:17:03
Speaker 1
Or three weeks.

00:17:17:07 - 00:17:17:16
Speaker 2
Right?

00:17:17:18 - 00:17:18:17
Speaker 1
Yeah. Beautiful.

00:17:18:18 - 00:17:42:06
Speaker 2
Maybe even like a shortened inspection period. We don't ever recommend you completely canceling your inspection period, but maybe shortening it from ten days to seven days and we just get on it right away. We get things scheduled as soon as possible. That seller might have a contingent purchase out there somewhere, and if we can speed up the contingencies on their house, that might help them with their purchase.

00:17:42:06 - 00:18:01:18
Speaker 2
So that's getting a little nitty gritty. But again, all comes back to motivation and then price. Of course sellers are mostly going to be worried about price, but if you come in and you're thinking about offering some concessions, maybe think about offering a little bit over what the asking price is. That way you can kind of offset that for them.

00:18:01:19 - 00:18:05:01
Speaker 2
and they can still get closer to the net that they were hoping to.

00:18:05:03 - 00:18:26:14
Speaker 1
And then there's the basic information of why are they selling? And a lot of times you can't get that. But we always like to develop a relationship with the other broker. If we're representing the buyers, we like to be able to have that conversation with the seller's representative just to, you know, figure out what's their situation, what what works best for them with this sale.

00:18:26:19 - 00:18:43:12
Speaker 1
Are they staying local or are they going nationally or. And usually we try to phrase it in a way that is just, hey, we're trying to put together the best offer for you. Can you help us out with some information and sometimes brokers disclose a what.

00:18:43:14 - 00:18:49:04
Speaker 2
The neighbors are the worst. The road is too loud. And then we're like, okay, you know?

00:18:49:04 - 00:19:14:17
Speaker 1
Or the listing agent says, well, they've already moved to Austin, Texas, and they're waiting to buy a home. They can't buy a home until this is sold. And it's like, yeah, you probably shouldn't have told me that now. Yeah, we just took ten grand off the price, but you know what I mean? Yeah, it's one of those things where every little piece of information is critical to getting the best offer in front of the seller and ensuring that you're the one who has the best offer.

00:19:14:17 - 00:19:38:17
Speaker 1
Or a lot of situations now aren't multi offer anymore and not competitive. And you know, you want to kind of have the price terms and conditions be a win win for everyone. But if we know what they're really hot buttons item items are then we can satisfy those. And then you know on the other side of it, get the buyer what they want with whatever the other side of the coin is there.

00:19:38:17 - 00:19:39:06
Speaker 1
You know what I mean?

00:19:39:06 - 00:19:42:00
Speaker 2
Exactly. I'm excited to hear your bonus tip.

00:19:42:05 - 00:20:03:06
Speaker 1
Well, it goes into the same thing we were talking about with information. But I don't ever hear brokers doing this very much, and I know a lot of them do. But if I was buying a home, I wouldn't want to know their exact opinion on what that home is currently worth. And people might say, well, you know, it's listed at 600,000.

00:20:03:08 - 00:20:31:15
Speaker 1
600,000 is what it's listed at. 600,000 is might not be what it's worth, and what it's worth is what someone is willing to pay. Right. And those can be two drastically different things. And being able to have your broker put together a valuation for that home to say in the current market, if I was if you bought this home and told me you had to sell it tomorrow, maybe that $600,000 home, I might say I think it's really just worth 585.

00:20:31:17 - 00:20:54:15
Speaker 1
And that way you can kind of know, okay, I really don't want to pay over 600 or over 5.5 85. Or maybe you want to go below that and go 560 or 550 or something like that. But just knowing what that value is and having your broker put together that valuation so that you can negotiate, having that knowledge of where the current market value is.

00:20:54:15 - 00:21:08:02
Speaker 1
And we just had a sale closing today, by the way, where the buyers asked me, you know, where do you put the the true value of this home? I told them 840 they ended up getting it for 835 and they felt really good about it.

00:21:08:03 - 00:21:10:04
Speaker 2
That's awesome. Was it? Listener eight.

00:21:10:04 - 00:21:11:13
Speaker 1
49 950.

00:21:11:14 - 00:21:12:04
Speaker 2
Nice.

00:21:12:05 - 00:21:14:05
Speaker 1
Right? So I mean, it was ten grand.

00:21:14:07 - 00:21:15:13
Speaker 2
But it's ten.

00:21:15:13 - 00:21:41:07
Speaker 1
Grand, right? and they were close. The other question is, okay, how competitive is this neighborhood in this marketplace? And it was a fantastic neighborhood, West side neighborhood that is just beautiful, especially for a family. And they've got a young family. And knowing that you're buying below market and also and that kind of high appreciation neighborhood, that's information you want to know.

00:21:41:07 - 00:21:53:18
Speaker 1
Because if you're negotiating, you want to know when to play hardball and when to say, yeah, I got a pretty good deal here. I'll go ahead and give them what they want on this. I think that really helps knowing the full picture so that they.

00:21:53:18 - 00:21:57:11
Speaker 2
Also did a quick closing. So that probably helped.

00:21:57:13 - 00:22:01:05
Speaker 1
It did how it did, how they did I think a three week close.

00:22:01:05 - 00:22:02:12
Speaker 2
Yeah. That was fast.

00:22:02:14 - 00:22:24:07
Speaker 1
Yeah very fast. And there were a litany of things with the inspection, just a lot of small stuff. And because they got it at a lower price, in fact, we got it lower than the net. 835 it was like net 830. Wow. Because of that, they were willing to kind of be flexible with what repairs the seller was going to do.

00:22:24:07 - 00:22:30:03
Speaker 1
Right? If there's price, terms and condition, you can't ask for all three. Usually.

00:22:30:07 - 00:22:30:16
Speaker 2
No.

00:22:30:19 - 00:22:46:05
Speaker 1
Some situations. Yep. You get all of them. You get the price you want. You get the terms you want to get. You get the conditions you want. But usually if you're getting two out of three, that's pretty good I agree. Right. So all good stuff to know. This was such a good topic.

00:22:46:05 - 00:22:54:23
Speaker 2
Michela thank you. May might have to do a completely new episode in a couple months, but for now this is what we recommend, when making an offer.

00:22:54:23 - 00:23:12:07
Speaker 1
Yeah. And I think what you're talking about with the market moving so quickly is absolutely the truth. I mean, we're seeing the changes with Nar, Department of Justice settlement, how buyers are represented, how buyer brokers are being paid now, whether it's from the buyer or from the seller or both or all that.

00:23:12:10 - 00:23:13:18
Speaker 2
Episodes to come about that.

00:23:13:18 - 00:23:34:05
Speaker 1
Episodes to come about that, that's for sure. But everything is changing and it always has been. Real estate's a very fluid marketplace, and buyers and sellers are always back and forth. Brokers are always back and forth. The good thing for you, if you're buying right now, you're listening to this because you want to be more knowledgeable about the buying process.

00:23:34:05 - 00:23:56:05
Speaker 1
You know, everyone's going to talk about rates and this and that and the other. The bottom line comes down to does the marketplace favor buyers or sellers? And for the past 3 or 4 years, it has been heavily favored in the sellers corner. And that has changed significantly. I'm not going to say it's a balanced market yet, but it's getting there.

00:23:56:05 - 00:24:17:06
Speaker 1
It's really getting there. The only thing is there's some weird dynamics with inventory and interest rates and compensation and all this sort of stuff, but for the most part, a buyer can go make an offer on a home now and not worry about there being ten other offers. Right? Maybe that's one and 1 in 20. I would say right now have a multiple offer situation.

00:24:17:08 - 00:24:18:06
Speaker 1
Do you think that's right?

00:24:18:08 - 00:24:18:21
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00:24:18:23 - 00:24:19:12
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00:24:19:14 - 00:24:21:20
Speaker 2
It's crazy how much inventory there is.

00:24:21:22 - 00:24:40:07
Speaker 1
And it's crazy how much we're seeing listing prices come down a little bit. But also sellers are having to be more flexible with the terms and conditions and the price. And what we just talked about with those three things, I think can be critical in getting the best possible offer put together. And who doesn't want to get the best deal right.

00:24:40:09 - 00:24:42:14
Speaker 1
So this is primo. These are great ways to do it.

00:24:42:15 - 00:24:43:18
Speaker 2
Thank you for listening.

00:24:43:20 - 00:24:59:03
Speaker 1
Yeah thank you everyone. Really appreciate your time. Visit live portland.com. Click on podcast. And lots of good information on this episode. And some of the information that we've talked about. So Mikayla have a great rest of your day too okay.

00:24:59:04 - 00:25:00:03
Speaker 2
Talk to you next week.

00:25:00:03 - 00:25:01:09
Speaker 1
Bye, guys.

00:25:01:11 - 00:25:14:11
Speaker 2
Thanks for joining us today. If you're interested in finding out more about Joe, myself or the live Portland team, you can go to live portland.com. Thanks for giving us to listen and see you next time on the Off the Record podcast.