RYAN CHARLICK, Realtor | FRANKLIN, TN.
I wasn’t sure whether to write this in the beginning or put it at the end. I am almost writing this as much for posterity and for informational and educational reasons. It was a crazy few months as prices, offers, seller requests spiraled almost out of control.
This is the hottest real estate market in…well, as long as most of us can remember. Everyone has heard, it’s a seller’s market and it is. The Sellers are now not only getting their number (and more in most cases) they are also setting the parameters/stipulations & contingencies in which you can buy their house.
So, if you are a buyer during these trying times two words to live by are Patience & Persistence. They don’t seem like they work together and are almost opposite of each other, but they do go hand in hand when trying to purchase a home nowadays.
I base this on my latest experiences in this frenzied market. One of my clients was just looking for a moderate home. He was a first time buyer and didn’t have a pile of cash in reserves.
We started looking in February when things seemed semi-normal. Homes were selling for a little over asking price here and there, and some were way over priced and would still sell for just under the asking price. Well, what seemed semi-normal started to change by the week. And remember part of the cause of this is that inventory is (has been) down significantly…as such as 66% fewer homes for sale this year than last.
The Nashville Real Estate Market in March 2021:
At first it was just prices going up a little more and maybe 3-4 offers per home. Because of the price point we had enough homes to get a good idea of what was out there and what we were going to get for the clients budget. We did not put in any offers because we were still figuring out the area he wanted to live & type of home.
Prices continue to go up a little more and there are a few more offers per home. We put in a few offers and none of them were accepted. Upon finding out we didn’t get the property I inquired with the other agent how we did. This is when we starting learning about the increase in offers. I would ask how we ranked? We would try to use whatever information we could get to try to figure out the craziness.
We took a couple weeks off from looking to regroup.
How crazy did the Nashville buying frenzy get?
Somewhere in here the weekend showings with offers due by Sunday night or Monday became commonplace. Therefore, intensifying the frenzy and really for no reason. You can’t tell me all these people needed to move/close within 30+ days. Many of the homes we saw were empty!
Also, sellers started to have their own contingencies. I believe I read one listing where the seller wanted:
Cash only offers, selling the home as-is, they needed to rent it back for 4-6 months and if you had a home to sell in order to buy theirs don’t bother submitting an offer…they probably sold it in a week!
May: Nashville Houses still selling like hotcakes
Prices and offers are still on the rise.
Not just the number of offers, but the dollar amounts as well.
We put in more offers with none accepted. I kept inquiring about how we did, where we ranked and what were some of the factors that were keeping us from winning.
Well, CASH IS KING….and so is waiving all contingencies, having a bankroll to cover the appraisal gap, etc.
Each offer we were more aggressive than the last. At this point we were chasing the market.
At this point we had seen a large number of houses in a large area surrounding Nashville.
With the best and final offers due by the deadline strategy there wasn’t any negotiation. On one of our offers there was a quick bit of negotiation and yet we still lost the deal.
At this point the client was not only upset but also incredibly frustrated and rightly so.
He sent me a text that he was done. He was going to sign another lease on his apartment and felt he was wasting his (our) time.
I called him and reminded him of a story I told him about how my wife would try to break up with me over text when were dating and now we’ve been married 9 years….and that he would have to do better than that.
This is when we talked about Patience & Persistence.
We took another week off from looking at homes.
June: Finally a winner! And on a beautiful house!
A house we put an offer in on in early May closed and went for $60k over asking and had 40 offers. We came in 13th place.
With our new mantra Patience & Persistence we kept looking and putting in offers.
We finally had an offer accepted on a house that came back on the market.
The client actually didn’t believe me at first when I told him we won.
This was a local Nashville area client and it was very challenging. If you are moving here from California, Illinois or anywhere else, it will also be challenging and even more so because of the obvious logistics. That’s not to say that we can’t do it, it will require being committed to the mantra…
Patience & Persistence is the key when navigating the Sellers Market in Nashville or Franklin TN!
