Buying A Home Is Like A Cat Stalking Its Prey
Home buying today is very different to what it was five years ago. When the market was at its peak the moment a home came on the market there were people falling over themselves to get a view and perhaps submit an offer. Today, a home comes onto the market and while there may be many potential buyers checking it out on the MLS, there are few who are actually attending open days. If you’re a buyer, your house hunting should be like that of a cat stalking its prey.
The first virtue of a stalking cat is patience. As a buyer, you need to have the patience to wait, check out all the available properties that meet your criteria and, like the cat, make tentative advances. Once you do find homes that meet your criteria, and that you find attractive, you have to pounce and pounce quickly. Like a cat, if you miss your prey, you shrug your shoulders and move onto the next one.
For most buyers, that is the real key – moving on. We recommend finding three or four homes that you find attractive enough to make offers on. When you’re ready, start with the first home on your list and make that offer. If it is refused and the counter offer not acceptable, rather than countering back, move onto the next home, then the next, then the next until you have made offers, one at a time, on each property.
Why take this approach? Your aim has to be to secure a suitable home at a good price. There will be more than one home that falls into the ‘suitable’ category so don’t stop at the first. If you make an offer and it’s rejected, by moving on to the next property you are signaling that you mean business and that you’re not going to play the barter game. Having gone through your list without success, you can then go back to the top of the list and make your counter offers but letting it be known you are interested in other properties.
Using this process, you will quickly find a seller ready to meet your terms. Like a cat, you have stalked the prey and pounced – and won.
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