Recipe for Purchasing a Home in a Sellers Market in Winnipeg. Winning a Bidding War

Recipe for Purchasing a Home in a Sellers Market in Winnipeg. Winning a Bidding War

As mentioned in my last blog, finding a home in Winnipeg over the last 10 years has proven to be a challenge for many buyers. In this blog I will share some strategies to help you minimize the stress involved in securing a home and winning at the bid war game. You can avoid the bidding was game altogether, but this involves patience and will be the topic for a future blog. The 1st step is to be 100% sure of your financial capabilities. In many cases it is a waste of time to get into a bid war on a home that is priced at the same amount of your maximum pre-qualification. This will in fact help the seller get more money for their home as your bid will be limited to the asking price and your qualified amount, thus creating a potential for others to bid above you. This would be a fantastic time for your agent to assess the situation and if there are no offers at offers date and time, strike! Another situation that I see regularly is an offer with many conditions when you are competing against other offers. I do not suggest that you make your offer “condition free” what I am suggesting is that the more conditions on your offer, the less likely it will be chosen as the eventual winner. A home inspection for instance can be done prior to the offer date. You can employ some home inspectors to do a quick walk through and a verbal report for far less than the regular fee charged which includes a comprehensive report. They will also do a 2nd and a 3rd inspection at a reasonable cost. The financing condition is perhaps the most problematic and least understood of all the conditions. This can make or break the deal. It is not impossible to make an offer without the financing condition and yet cover your behind with the proper wording to any offer. This wording will depend on your financial capabilities and a discussion between a knowledgeable, aggressive banker and agent will create a clear understanding of how to formulate the offer so that it is as strong as possible without compromising your situation. At the offer presentation stage, communication is a key component between agents. Some agents acting for the seller do no have the time (although they should) to comb through multiple offers over a 2 hour period or whatever time it takes. This is in the best interests of the seller. In these cases, when your properly written offer is presented to the vendor, it could and should give you, the buyer, one last chance to make a final change to your offer. Sometimes it is a matter of a few thousand dollars which in the big picture could be less than 1% of the eventual selling price. A small price to pay for the home you have identified as an exact match to your criteria. A High Level of Service is Not Expensive..Its Priceless!