North Harbor Drive

Winter is still here, the weather is so cold in Chicago, normally these are very slow months with very little people coming out to see properties. However this year, people are eager to get into the real estate market, even it is right after the holidays. Seems people does not want to take a break, everyone is ready to offer or sell.

I have helped my customers writing quite a few offers, only 2 of them got accepted. These two customers were both offered to other properties but got overbid a couple of times, so that they understand that they need to come up on price and also has to offer in a very reasonable price, otherwise it will leave too much space and time for the others to come in.  For example, one of the offers we made is within 4 hours and the price is within 97% of the asking price, therefore, the seller has accepted our offer and we had a signed contract within 24 hour of the listing.

At the same time, my customer has lost a few listings, some of them we get to see the property, some of them we did not even get to see the properties.

Right now, since the inventory level is so low, we should help our clients to get prepared, means to

1) get the pre approval letter  ready,

2) set up the auto search for them,

3)tell them to check email often,

4) make appointments to show them the properties as soon as they show interest,

5) send them the recent 6 months sold history for similar units in the building or in the neighborhood

6) tell them the urgency of making a reasonable offer.

Also, I have noticed that since the market is picking up fast, some of the listing price is low compare to the demand of the market, although they are quite reasonable compare to the other units sold. Therefore, when these kind of listings came up, we should tell our clients that there are not so much room for negotiation if they are interested in the unit as otherwise, they would be overbid by other buyers.

Last year, we still have enough active listings to pick from, so the difficult part for the buyer is to pick the right property and negotiate a good price. In 2013, it will not be an easy year for the buyers as the market is fluctuate so much, so it is hard to find the right property for buyers, if the buyers are not ready, you do not want to push them much, then your buyers will lose the all the good opportunities.