Covid-19 has in just a few months upended the real estate market nationwide. Those who are fortunate to work from home can now opt for a home with a yard, instead of a cramped upper Westside flat. The joys of being walking distance to everything have gone – at least for now. The vaccine is coming!
There are not as many homes for sale in St. Petersburg and Tampa at the moment. In fact, most of the smaller towns around America are seeing a big uptick in purchasing. Low mortgage rates also is compounding this. Right now, inventory on homes for sale in St. Petersburg is at an all-time low.
When you are shopping for a home in St. Petersburg, and you see one hit the market in a good neighborhood.. and it has most of what you are looking for – jump on it quick! If it looks good to you, it also looks good to others looking at it online. View that home as soon as you can, and then get that offer in fast. One tip is to ask that you be given a response from the seller that same day. If you are submitting the offer in the evening, then ask for an answer from the seller by morning. This is so you can get it under contract, and get it off the market, before you get into a multiple offer situation.
For those of you not familiar with multiple offer situations, this occurs when more than one offer is submitted around the same time. This is great for the seller, not so great for the buyer. When this happens, the buyer then has to compete with these other buyers, instead of just negotiating with the seller alone. When you are in a multiple offer situation, the listing agent will inform you that multiple offers have come in, and you the buyer, are then given another date to re-offer, what is called your “highest and best” offer. It is usually a day or two after you have been given the notice of multiple offers This does give you the opportunity to offer again, and of course it has to be higher than your original offer amount. In a multiple offer situation, a buyer typically has to offer over list price to get chosen by the seller. Just how high? Well that depends on how many offers have come in. If a buyer really wants that house, the figure at least 5k over the listing price.
A buyer can also choose to sweeten the “highest and best” offer by adding more to their escrow amount down, choose and earlier closing date, or change their financing option, to a cash option. The term Cash is King is huge in real estate because the sellers don’t have to rely on their home being approved by lender financing and the appraisal that comes with it. So that is a quick run-down on the multiple offer situation. Since homes for sale in St. Petersburg are at such a low inventory, you might want to contact a good buyers agent that has been around for a while and who knows of homes for sale that are not listed on the market (called pocket-listings). St. Petersburg International Group are Accredited Buyers Agents who not only work with buyers, but who also have some methods to WIN in a multiple offer situations! Please feel free to contact myself or Clifford Clavel for more information. Beau Lucas 727-515-9728 / beaulucas4@gmail.com. _/\_
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