If you are in the market to buy a new home this spring, you may find yourself with other hopefuls nipping at your heels as you hone in on a property. Certainly if you are looking for a home between $1.5 million and $3 million dollars in Old Greenwich or Riverside you can expect to have some company at the bidding table.
As realtors, we can give you a good sense of history, current trends, and what we have learned in the many hours observing how buyers think, watching how decisions are made and offer numbers arrived at (by the way, the first two of these aren't always accurately reported through the big online real estate sites and the latter isn't something that they can convey). Representing out of town buyers in a multiple bid scenario last week, reminded me once again, that real estate is not always rationale.
The age old, but very effective list of Pros and Cons of a home is a helpful exercise to review the home in a logical way. Ask yourself: At what number would I be comfortable walking away from this house if someone overbids me? The answer to this can keep you from falling into an auction frenzy mentality, as can be the case if multiple offers go to sealed bids or a deadline for submission.
Above all else--and this is the toughest one-- resist falling in love with something that can't love you back. In the end, a house is just materials. What makes it a home is you. And there's more than one place where you can do that.
Nevertheless, losing a bidding war is never pleasant. And hearing "where one door closes another opens", feels like a bad pun when you have just seen the front door that you were hoping to walk through slam shut. Take a breath. Exercise patience. I assure you, there is another house that will find its way to you.
