The Market is on Fire!
Throughout the greater Chicago area, and around the country, the super hot seller’s market shows no signs of extinguishing any time soon. Many homes are selling before they even hit the open market listings. These conditions continue to reap big wins for sellers just as buyers are becoming more and more desperate to snap up the properties they’re after.
A Seller’s Goldmine
Last week, I heard a story about a home in the San Francisco market that sold for $1 million over asking price with more than 20 competing offers. While the competition in Chicago isn’t quite that fierce, sellers here can still expect a median year-over-year value increase around 15%. That’s an incredible projection which likely keeps the ball in the sellers’ court for a long time to come.
A Buyer’s Feeding Frenzy
Buyers, of course, are pretty stressed out. Their offers are coming up short over and over as inventory in just about every neighborhood and suburb is deeply limited.
Four properties I’ve personally listed over the last month have sold either while still in pre-listing form, or right when they hit the open listings. Properties are regularly selling within a day or two of listing, and they are often going for over the asking price.
How to Compete and Win Buying Your Dream Home
Good buyers’ agents are pulling out all the stops trying to get their clients into the homes they want. Many of us are employing escalation clauses when multiple offers are on the table. We are also adding as-is riders — clauses in the contracts where the buyer assumes any shortfall on appraisals coming in under the sales price. Finally, buyers are giving up their mortgage contingencies, putting any deposit money at risk if they cannot secure a loan, but helping the offer process move quickly so they aren’t outbid.
Buyers and sellers in this market should be working with an agent who has their finger on the pulse of the of the private listing market, and has access to the Private Listing Network (PLN). These are unprecedented times, as upwards of a third of the market appears to be selling on the PLN. It’s more important now than ever to find an agent who feels an urgency to respond to your specific needs, and can move swiftly in a hyper-competitive marketplace.
