Conventional wisdom changes quickly in the fast-moving Dallas-Fort Worth housing market.
If you really want that house you may have to be prepared to offer well above asking price, or make other accommodations that otherwise would leave you feeling uncomfortable.
“When a good home comes on the market that’s in good condition, that’s priced properly in a good location, it is getting multiple offers,” said Brian Johnson, a realtor with Ebby Halliday in Frisco. “I had one home down the street get 18 offers.”
Johnson spoke Monday while standing beside a “Sale Pending” sign at a house in Allen.
The three bedroom, two bath home was recently listed for just below $220,000, according to Johnson.
The house was listed on a Wednesday afternoon and by Saturday of that same week, Johnson’s sellers had entertained seven offers, six of which were above asking price.
“It has gone extremely quickly,” said Sheena Bonadona, the seller, with a wide grin. “Within a week we were already starting to pack.”
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The smile was not so wide for a buyer a few miles away in Frisco.
Antony Ho recently moved to North Texas with his husband from the San Francisco Bay area. The couple currently has a pending offer on a home in their preferred neighborhood of Queen’s Gate in Frisco – an offer that they made well above the asking price and without having an inspection of the property.
Who could blame them? Ho said this house was the third one they had made an offer on.
“We were like, ‘Okay, Texas must be a piece of cake [compared to the Bay area.]’ But we were wrong,” Ho said with a laugh.
According to Ho’s realtor, their prospective home might be the new standard for the area in terms of a quick sale.
“It was less than three hours of this home being on the market,” said Realtor Wanda Charles, of the Wanda Charles Group, a division of Ebby Halliday. “It’s very frustrating, I’m sure, for people coming in and learning the area.”
“I definitely feel for [home buyers in] the market and what they’re experiencing with the amount of people that we have relocating here,” Charles said.
As long as interest rates continue to stay relatively low and the inventory of homes available for sale stays at its current supply – generally two to three months in many North Texas cities – Realtor Brian Johnson predicted that this sellers’ market will continue.
Johnson said the sweet spot for a home to fetch multiple offers above the asking price is a house listed somewhere between $200,000 and $400,000.
In addition, the situation that many home buyers are experiencing may be more of the exception than the rule.
According to the Collin County Association of Realtors, the average time for a home on the market, from listing date to contract date, was 47 days in Collin County last month. In addition, the average sale price was 2.3 percent below the original list price.
“There are definitely areas that are selling above the list price, but the county as a whole is a little below list,” said Steve Haid, Chief Operating Officer of the Collin County Association of Realtors.
