I had an agent call me yesterday regarding a listing I have that recently went under contract. They had a client that was interested in seeing the home, but realized it was under contract. The agent was calling to get a sense of how solid the transaction seemed, wondering if they should show the home to their client. I mentioned that I felt the contract was fairly solid, but they would be welcome to show the home, if they wanted.
The agent declined and made a comment about how buyers feel they can take as much time as they want in this market, but “you snooze, you lose” still seems to happen. I agreed with them, as I have seen this happen with some of my clients in the past few months as well.
Yes, most of the towns in the Greater Hartford area are Buyers Markets right now. There really is no rush to buy for most buyers. If you miss out on one property, there will be another one out there for you. The issue becomes that in some neighborhoods and towns the inventory is limited for certain price ranges or for certain amenities within a price range. A few examples right now would be the $300K-$500K price range in the West End of Hartford and homes in West Hartford with at least 2.1 bathrooms in the $300K-$350K price range. In each of these examples, there are very few homes available that meet these criteria.
If you’re looking for a property that has a limited supply, you’ll need to decide sooner rather than later if you’d like to act on a certain home, otherwise you run the risk of “losing” the property. You may be okay with “losing” properties, but at some point, if you’re a serious buyer, you’re going to need to make a bid and put some skin in the game. So even though it’s a Buyers Market for many, for some that’s not the case. You’ll just need to understand what your options are based on your criteria and timeline.