If you haven't already heard, the inventory of available homes for sale is low and presenting challenges in many of the lower price points (under $200,000) Your agent may have been trying to tell you this and you just can't believe it. Well here are the facts.
As of today there were 779 stick built homes active (no pending statuses) in the Reno-Sparks area. The key is that of those only 26 are priced under $100,000. Actually the bulk of the active listings, 620 of them are priced over $200,000. Good news is of the homes priced under $200,000 77 are regular sales with no waiting for short sale approval or dealing with the banks.
So what's the key to purchasing a home with these types of inventory conditions?
- Work with an agent. Looking at listings on the Internet and then calling on them will leave you in the dust. Have your agent set you up on an automatic email search that emails you immediately when new listings come on and be sure to work with someone who is willing to run out and show you the property quickly.
- Be Pre-Qualified. Have your lender pre-qualification in hand. It's a must. You won't have time to get this after you find the property, it will be gone.
- Down Payment - in order to be competitive in multiple offer situations you will want to have a strong offer. The highest cash offer usually wins. If you don't have cash your next best bet is a conventional loan with at least 20% down. FHA, VA and Rural Housing loans with very little down payment will have a hard time competing in multiple offer situations.
- Be Competitive. If you end up in a multiple offer situation be prepared to bid over asking price.
It's a whole new ball game out there. Get a good agent on your team and increase your chances of success.
