The Barrie real estate market is moving fast. Homes go up for sale and they are sold very quickly. With more buyers than homes for sale it means that the sellers have the leverage. They are able set a reasonable price and almost guarantee it will sell quickly.
This makes life tough on the buyers. Let’s take a look at the example of a client I’ve had, we’ll call him John. John and his wife really wanted to buy a home in the south end of Barrie. That’s actually the only area they wanted. They had a modest budget. They aren’t going to buy luxury but they had a good enough budget they could definitely get a home that matched almost all of their criteria.
While Johns’ wife had a clear idea in mind was willing to move quickly, John was not the same. When he saw a home he liked he almost always needed the night to think about it. He would go home, consider his options, and then come back in the next couple days and decide if he wanted to make an offer. No matter what happened, he was going to take his time making the decision.
Here was the problem. The market was moving way too fast for John’s process. Him and his wife lost out on 3-4 homes that would have been perfect for him. With bidding wars and homes moving fast, as John took the night to think about the home and whether or not to offer, someone else was less hesitant and started bidding right away.
John had to change his process. He could no longer sit and take the time to think about it. John was never upfront before what he spent time thinking about for every home. John, his wife, and I sat down and talked about why he was waiting. We figured out all the issues he was grappling with every time. The information he was processing. Now that we knew, I was able to do the research up front and figure out everything he considered for every home.
Its important that when the market moves fast you are incredibly upfront about everything with your real estate agent. If you aren’t then you may lose out on several homes. Luckily, John and his wife were able to get a home they loved but it wasn’t quite as good as some of the others that they wanted.
Its important to take the time to make the right decision when this much money is involved but that doesn’t mean that you can’t move quickly still. Take a lesson from John. Whoever you hire as your real estate agent, tell them everything. The more information the better or you may end up losing a home over some small details you didn’t need to.
