COVID and the housing market | Page 8 | GTAMotorcycle.com

COVID and the housing market

mimico_polak said:
So my bid of 100k less than others will be selected because of a letter? I’m sure it’s unlikely but have heard of it happening.
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Your odds are not zero and definitely better than with no letter (assuming your letter doesn't come across as entitled or douchey). I think 100 for a letter would be rare, but I could definitely see in the 10's. People see someone that is working hard and similar to themselves growing up vs 125784234 Ontario Inc. that will pay a little more and the heart strings are worth something.
 
On the topic of letter along with the offer, is that part of the offer package or do you drop it off at the house?

I've seen that little note at the listing from the selling agent that they're only gonna present top # (3, 4 etc) offers. I have access to this info because my mom's my buying agent. Apparently this info isn't available to public (I guess unless communicated).


I mean, call me heartless but if the gap between an offer with personal letter and one without is like 100k - 200k, yeah I'm taking the higher offer one.

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mimico_polak said:
So my bid of 100k less than others will be selected because of a letter? I’m sure it’s unlikely but have heard of it happening.
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Obviously not but some sellers included a copy of their recently sold listing, their job positions and current financial status with assets saying they will for sure close. It isn't a guarantee that they'll for sure close but compared to the couple that offered close stating it's their first home it can help.
 
moarmoto said:
I mean, call me heartless but if the gap between an offer with personal letter and one without is like 100k - 200k, yeah I'm taking the higher offer one.

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Not heartless. Any sane person would do the same. But as people responded to my comment, it could help take an offer that’s 10-20k less.

With a letter like that, we offered our realtor that letter and she said not to bother in the market now. But we ended up getting the house for 2k under list.

I’d be too skeptical that the letter came from a contractor, he’s got a family too and can show pretty pictures of their kids to pull at the heartstrings.

If I was to provide a letter like that, I’d go do it face to face instead of through agents. Then you can guarantee that your offer will be reviewed and not screened by the agent for not meeting THEIR criteria, not the sellers.
 
When we bought our house (spring 2019, so add two more years of hysteria on that), on top of the usual written offer, they also opened the door on the evening of receiving offers for the purchasing realtors to make a pitch on top of the pure monetary offer. Our realtor didn't think anyone else would show up, so thought it would help. Turns out so did seven other realtors, so it apparently was like an audition with all the realtors sitting in a waiting room, having their names called one by one. Of the seven who showed, only two left right away, suggesting a close race. We ended up getting it partly because we were happy with a very long close, which shows it can be more than just about absolute dollars.

Assuming offers are close, the letter may help on a number of fronts. As mentioned, highlighting financial solidity helps, as it's not unheard of for deals to fall through with buyers who can't get what they hope they can. This used to be an issue for sellers, as a relisted house used to be less appealing than a new listing for the usual odd psychological reasons. I suspect it doesn't much matter in today's low inventory feeding frenzy, though.

The other factor is if people have lived in an area for a while, they've likely formed friendships people close by and don't want to saddle them with bad neighbours or a rental. When we sold in BC, we definitely considered how the buyers would fit the area, as we got an immediate bully offer and had to decide whether to accept or hold out for more showings. Having met them during the rush showing (much to both realtors' chagrin) we thought we had a good sense of what they were about and it made accepting the offer easier.

As an aside, for the usual flood of flyers and calls from flippers and realtors desperate for listings, we got a letter in our mailbox last night from a woman and her family describing how they loved the neighbourhood, how they were desperate to live here, and offering all sorts of reasons why a private sale to them would be preferential to a typical listing (no fluffing, no realtor commission, no open houses, solid financials, long close, price agreed based on recent comparables, etc.) It's possible it was a clever flipper, but they definitely leaned heavily on how they would be great additions to the area and how they would care for the house...
 
Door knocks work. Sure you'll annoy some people but in the end the odds of finding a deal are good.
Our current build was bought on land bought by me after knocking on doors. If you're outdoorsy like me there's no better lot and it wasn't for sale but because we knocked on doors asking it was bought private sale. I couldn't be happier as is the farmer who sold it to me.
I knocked on the door of our last house because it was in a great spot and suited me at the time. Turns out the elderly couple there wanted to sell and move to a condo but didn't want showings due to mobility concerns nor did they want to renovate it. They gave me a fair price (not great, but fair) and I bought it private sale. We were both happy.
Again, door knocks work.
 
mimico_polak said:
So my bid of 100k less than others will be selected because of a letter? I’m sure it’s unlikely but have heard of it happening.
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Yup, the letter to me is like us begging and pleading to the home owner to choose us for reason X Y Z

Come on, it's a house not a job -_-"

But I have no choice it seems since buying a house has basically become a mixture of auditioning + bidding wars

I have brought up the idea of burrowing my friend's baby to make us seem like newly weds with a kid. Get some emotions and pity points in there but covid threw this plan out the window :(
 
Another House in the area popped up....$800k for a house that’s comparable to a 1.3M house....

setting up for a bidding war.
 
mimico_polak said:
Another House in the area popped up....$800k for a house that’s comparable to a 1.3M house....

setting up for a bidding war.
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I still think that a no condition offer submitted at the asking price should not be able to be rejected. That would start a 24 hour clock for the seller to try to find a better offer otherwise it's sold. That would clean up a lot of this garbage. Sure, you can price really low, but if things don't go as you hope, you may give it away. A few swift kicks in the nuts and asking prices would much more closely reflect reality (maybe still low but at least in the ballpark).
 
GreyGhost said:
I still think that a no condition offer submitted at the asking price should not be able to be rejected. That would start a 24 hour clock for the seller to try to find a better offer otherwise it's sold. That would clean up a lot of this garbage. Sure, you can price really low, but if things don't go as you hope, you may give it away. A few swift kicks in the nuts and asking prices would much more closely reflect reality (maybe still low but at least in the ballpark).
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Agreed.
This house is 2x the size and on a bigger lot than the tear down 250m away. Zero chance for it to go below 1.3M.

I guess the agent wants to be able to say ‘sold way over asking.’
 
mimico_polak said:
I guess the agent wants to be able to say ‘sold way over asking.’
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It's all about getting people to let themselves fall in love with a house. When you start with a low asking, it gets folks who might not even look at a higher price to start dreaming about living in the home. Once there, the emotional defenses start to fall, and buyers begin to commit larger mental amounts to the house in order to 'win' it. By the time offers are due, they're way beyond what they would have started with.

Of course, the system is deeply broken, so the buyers' realtor actually loses money by advocating for a lower offer...

This can go the other way, too. When we got the bully offer on our last house within hours of it being on the market, our realtor warned us that accepting would likely eliminate additional offers, as knowing a house was unavailable would prevent people from emotionally committing to it. This was a risk, as the bully offer was conditional on a home inspection (another thing that should be mandated by law, incidentally), which is functionally a free pass to rescind an offer without penalty.
 
SunnY S said:
I think its great. Its a free market. People pay what they are willing for a product or service. In this case, houses.

don't like it? don't bid. sick of cry babys crying foul.

welcome to market forces.... (if you play in the stock market, you know all about it)

(as for the insane commissions your typical agent makes for the amount of work they put in, well, that's a topic for another thread)
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If it truly is a free market then there would be no intervention to bail it out if it ever does turn the other way,
but how likely is that they wouldn't? So is it actually a free market?
 
GreyGhost said:
I still think that a no condition offer submitted at the asking price should not be able to be rejected. That would start a 24 hour clock for the seller to try to find a better offer otherwise it's sold. That would clean up a lot of this garbage. Sure, you can price really low, but if things don't go as you hope, you may give it away. A few swift kicks in the nuts and asking prices would much more closely reflect reality (maybe still low but at least in the ballpark).
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Can just as easily state you're not accepting offers until X date though.
 
SunnY S said:
I think its great. Its a free market. People pay what they are willing for a product or service. In this case, houses.

don't like it? don't bid. sick of cry babys crying foul.

welcome to market forces.... (if you play in the stock market, you know all about it)

(as for the insane commissions your typical agent makes for the amount of work they put in, well, that's a topic for another thread)
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You think its great because your already in the market.
Its not just about the free market. When Canadians cant afford to buy homes and end up renting forever and retiring with no home equity, all the while rich non residents from a country whose population is 50x that of Canada, can buy multiple homes here to park their money, thats BS.

If the market ever dives I dont want to hear anyone complain that its not fair.
 
GreyGhost said:
I still think that a no condition offer submitted at the asking price should not be able to be rejected. That would start a 24 hour clock for the seller to try to find a better offer otherwise it's sold. That would clean up a lot of this garbage. Sure, you can price really low, but if things don't go as you hope, you may give it away. A few swift kicks in the nuts and asking prices would much more closely reflect reality (maybe still low but at least in the ballpark).
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It could be argued that a sales contract should be like MSRP. If you have the money and meet the terms it's yours. In reality it's run more like a silent auction. House for sale. Reserve.

Some auctions have a Reserve Price. A Reserve Price is a hidden minimum price that the seller is willing to accept for an item. In a Reserve Price auction, the seller is only obligated to sell the item once the bid amount meets or exceeds the Reserve Price. A seller can lower, but cannot raise, the Reserve Price.

Like a auction, people get wound up and pay more than the property is worth or what they can afford. Financial stress is a big cause of divorce. Then more of the joint assets go to dissolving the marriage, legal fees, sell the house fees, alimony and child support costs, shrinks for the kids. But it had granite countertops.
 
nobbie48 said:
It could be argued that a sales contract should be like MSRP. If you have the money and meet the terms it's yours. In reality it's run more like a silent auction. House for sale. Reserve.

Some auctions have a Reserve Price. A Reserve Price is a hidden minimum price that the seller is willing to accept for an item. In a Reserve Price auction, the seller is only obligated to sell the item once the bid amount meets or exceeds the Reserve Price. A seller can lower, but cannot raise, the Reserve Price.

Like a auction, people get wound up and pay more than the property is worth or what they can afford. Financial stress is a big cause of divorce. Then more of the joint assets go to dissolving the marriage, legal fees, sell the house fees, alimony and child support costs, shrinks for the kids. But it had granite countertops.
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Except there is no set reserve. It can be set at any level at any time. Controlled by a cartel that benefits greatly by crazy growth in prices.
 
GreyGhost said:
Your odds are not zero and definitely better than with no letter (assuming your letter doesn't come across as entitled or douchey). I think 100 for a letter would be rare, but I could definitely see in the 10's. People see someone that is working hard and similar to themselves growing up vs 125784234 Ontario Inc. that will pay a little more and the heart strings are worth something.
Click to expand...

Friend's daughter did the letter thing. It put her on the list of acceptable buyers to work with. Maybe one of the unaccepted buyers had deeper pockets but was cut from the active list.

It also depends on the position of the seller. In the above case they were older, had been in the house for decades and weren't moving up the the next level. If the buyer reminds you of your grandchild it's a bonus.

She got the house along with a binder with all the paperwork of what got done, by who and when. A bunch of extras were thrown in.as well.
 
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