How to Buy a Home in a Tight Housing Market | Milwaukee Real Estate

Where is all the housing inventory?

Buying a home should be a happy experience! However, in the 2022 housing market, low inventory is making buyers see red.

It is typical for first time home buyers to lose the first three or four houses on which they write an offer. Currently, the average Milwaukee home price hovers right around $300,000. Homes around this price point often will have several offers with one offer accepted within hours of hitting the market. If the home is improved with a new kitchen or bath, that home will typically go to a cash buyer with few to no contingencies. Trying to win one of these houses? Here is what you need to know!

• Be pre-approved - preferably with a local lender for more than the listed price of the home
• Have an experienced buyer’s agent representing you in the transaction
• Meet with your agent prior to seeing any homes for a buyer consultation where:
  • You review the offer to purchase
  • Review common addendums to the offer
  • Discuss down payment and earnest money
  • Develop a strategy for a winning offer to purchase
  • Review the importance of a home inspection
• Do not submit that love letter - those days are gone (discuss why with your agent)
• Drop those contingencies? Discuss the advantages and disadvantages with your agent
• Discuss creative incentives for the seller(s) with your agent

The Wisconsin "Offer to Purchase” is ten pages long. It is a legal document. It often has a four-page addendum attached. These documents can be complex and complicated. Buyers are best served meeting with their agent and discussing the Offer to Purchase in advance of seeing houses to plan a winning offer strategy.

The Presentation of Offers to Sellers

Agents would be wise to implement a presentation of offers process for their sellers (Sellers – take note!). A documented process ensures offers are being presented fairly and every buyer has an opportunity to win the home. Anything outside of this creates a feeling of suspicion and unfairness to the buyer. A process could look something like this:

• Showings are marked to begin
• An Open House is scheduled to allow the entire interested buying public to view
• All offers are presented timely
• Agents are notified by email or Showingtime once the seller begins receiving offers

A documented process like this helps ensure offers are being presented fairly. The buyers (future sellers!) will remember this time in history when they go to sell their home. They will remember the process and how they felt. Setting expectations and using the Private Remarks section of the MLS to explain the rules of engagement to your fellow REALTORS@ and the buying public is going to be very important for future business prospects. This market will not last forever, and I am predicting change soon.

Good luck to all the buyers, sellers, and agents out there, and if you have questions, feel free to call us at Powers Realty Group at 414-963-0000.