Preemptive offer on houses?
Have you done a preemptive offer on a house here in the bay area? If so, how did you find out about them? We are trying to buy a house in berkeley in this crazy market, and would love to not have to do the bidding war. If you had a well connected relator that helped you find houses before they went on MLS, we would love a recommendation. Any other advice about how to get a house in this market is also much welcome. Thanks everyone!
Sep 18, 2016
Parent Replies
We bought our home in Berkeley 2 years ago by bidding $180,000 over asking price with no contingencies. If you don't have an all cash offer, you will need to bid high. Yes, find the right real estate agent for you as that is the most crucial part in the craziness that is Berkeley housing. One of the problems that we found, if you buy in the flats, is that the price you offer may be higher than the appraisal comes in at. This happened to us. The comps from all around us did not support the $1,010,000 bid that we offered. What that means is that we had to pony up $40,000 cash to make up the difference in the loan (you can't take another loan or borrow from retirement accounts while in escrow) or we would have lost all of our earnest money and the deal would have fallen through. Just beware of that. We had no cash left (obviously, since it had all gone into our down payment chunk, had we known earlier...) but we "magically" came up with $40,000. In all honesty, I have never heard of a realtor offering a house before it hit the MLS, but maybe I am missing something; our friend who found a great house that was not listed in Oakland did so by being a neighbor of an older homeowner who just wanted to get rid of an old fixer-upper without listing it. But almost every other homeowner I know had to slog through the nightmare of bidding wars. Best of luck to you guys, it is not easy
People don't like to move in winter when school is in session and the weather is cold and wet. I would suggest you keep up your hunt through the end of this year and the beginning of next. There will be less competition than in the spring and summer.