So my fianc and I (25 & 26) are in the market for our first home and in the last couple weeks have gotten pre-approved (I work for a bank, so I get a rate discount on top of the already great rates), hired a realtor, and started looking.
Our current apartment lease is up on 4/19, so we have a bit of time, but wanted to get the process started because of the way the market is. Our realtor is great and has lots of experience, but even she seems a little blindsided by how some of these offers are right now in this market.
Example: we put in an offer on a house this past weekend for 12k over asking price with all the concessions they wanted (lease back, no HOA docs were the big ones), but we were told by the seller's realtor that our offer didn't even come close. Our realtor has told us that buyers are getting reckless because the inventory is so low and they are waiving the appraisal clauses in their offers so even if the house doesn't appraise for what they offer, they will make up the difference in cash. We would rather use our cash on hand for a higher down payment then putting some improvements into the house to build equity rather than being "upside down" as soon as we sign the papers.
Basically, what I'm asking is how do we stand out as buyers? We aren't offering all cash. The houses we are looking at are in the 270k-300k range (like lots of people) and we don't want to just settle for a fixer upper. Do we look at houses in worst school districts at the risk of resale value down the road? For context, we live in DFW and are looking specifically in the I-75 corridor (McKinney, Allen, east Plano, Rowlett, Garland, Wylie, Sachse) because I work in McKinney and she works in Dallas.
Our current apartment lease is up on 4/19, so we have a bit of time, but wanted to get the process started because of the way the market is. Our realtor is great and has lots of experience, but even she seems a little blindsided by how some of these offers are right now in this market.
Example: we put in an offer on a house this past weekend for 12k over asking price with all the concessions they wanted (lease back, no HOA docs were the big ones), but we were told by the seller's realtor that our offer didn't even come close. Our realtor has told us that buyers are getting reckless because the inventory is so low and they are waiving the appraisal clauses in their offers so even if the house doesn't appraise for what they offer, they will make up the difference in cash. We would rather use our cash on hand for a higher down payment then putting some improvements into the house to build equity rather than being "upside down" as soon as we sign the papers.
Basically, what I'm asking is how do we stand out as buyers? We aren't offering all cash. The houses we are looking at are in the 270k-300k range (like lots of people) and we don't want to just settle for a fixer upper. Do we look at houses in worst school districts at the risk of resale value down the road? For context, we live in DFW and are looking specifically in the I-75 corridor (McKinney, Allen, east Plano, Rowlett, Garland, Wylie, Sachse) because I work in McKinney and she works in Dallas.
