Have you ever found a property that ticks all the boxes only to discover it’s been sold before you could blink?
Most sellers go to market very motivated with the aim of getting their properties sold, at a great price and in good time. After all, they fork out thousands of dollars for photos, internet ads, brochures and signboards, and have to spend the next four weeks knowing that spotless isn’t good enough when it comes to open houses and often having to clear out the family at short notice to bend around private inspections. So an early offer, right in the sweet zone can be the icing on the cake for sellers.
This means that buyers who don’t get their skates on straight away can be left behind, with the property sold and them left talking about “the one that got away”.
Our advice for buyers is to inspect every home in your budget, and do your absolute best to get to the first open home. If you can’t make it, try to inspect privately with the agent the next day. If the property ticks all (or most) of your boxes, start your due diligence (get the contract checked by your solicitor, order the building inspection) and let the Agent know you’re doing so. That way, you’re prepared and ready to snap the property up early if you want to or not left behind if someone else makes an offer which the Vendors might accept.
The alternative is to spend the next few months looking for a similar property, forever comparing everything you see to the one that got away.
There are other reasons why sellers could be interested in an early sale; they may have already bought another property elsewhere and a pre-auction sale will help them avoid bridging finance or because the property they want to buy is going to auction before theirs and a sale will offer them surety.
So if you’ve found “the one”, my advice is to go for it, and make an offer after you’ve completed your due diligence. Don’t wait to see what others are doing, or wait for the market to go down (that may never happen) as it may put you on the back foot. Get to the open houses early in the campaign and put your best offer forward early. You might just hit the sellers sweet spot. After all, the early bird catches the worm.