BUYERS OUT AND ABOUT IN GREATER NUMBERS

While interest from buyers has bounced back – especially among first homebuyers – market stock will likely remain limited for 2020, so if you’re making an offer on your dream home, make it a good one or risk missing out

IT WAS nice to feel a sense of normalcy as a real estate agent last weekend. After a significant dip in weekly inspections due to COVID-19 restrictions and general hesitancy from buyers and sellers alike, it felt incredible to host five open homes and four private inspections across a single caffeine-fuelled day.

Buyers are seemingly out and about in greater numbers, particularly in the first homebuyer space. What’s more, there are plenty of professional couples and young families also ready to make the next move, for a variety of reasons – upsizing, investing and more.

One property at 13 Leanne Close, Woree, which we were particularly pleased to sell, was your quintessential starter home – a low-set three-bedroom, one-bathroom property on a decent-sized block in good condition but with room to upgrade. Three first homebuyers duked it out (on paper) for the keys and our agency was very pleased to tie it all together by 7pm Saturday night – just five days after it first went to market.

Given our agency was dealing with newcomers to the property market, there were a few more questions than usual about the purchasing process, particularly around multiple offers and how they work.

Firstly, there’s no “first in, best dressed” rule when it comes to buying a property (although having good manners as always does go a long way). This notion comes from auctions in Victoria and New South Wales (not Queensland) where the highest bidder has the first right of refusal for negotiating post-auction. Just because you submitted your offer first, doesn’t guarantee you’re going to get the house, and it certainly doesn’t preclude the seller from dealing with multiple parties.

If you do want to improve your chances of securing a home, you should go hard and fast with your offer. What does that mean? Put simply, make your offer closer to your finish line than your starting point. You need to entice the sellers enough to accept the offer (or at least heavily consider it), rather than have them feel less than impressed and waiting to see if there’s someone else with a higher or more impressive offer. As a buyer, that second, third or fourth offer mightn’t always trump yours but there’s a very real risk that it may, which could be costly if you’re competing for what you deem to be your dream home. If you’re serious about purchasing a home, it’s a good idea to put your best offer forward so you can rest assured that if you miss out on the property, you gave it your best shot.

Property forecasting predicts we’ll see fewer homes on the market than usual for the rest of 2020. If you have specific requirements on price, style or location, there could be a very real risk of missing out. Cheeky or lowball offers are all well and good. They sometimes work well (particularly in a buyer’s market). However, be prepared with another strategy in case it doesn’t.

This property at 13 Leanne Close, Woree, was quickly snapped up by a first homebuyer at a recent open home.