Can I just say, life is better in Tacoma sometimes?
There are many things that people in our big city neighbor to the north (Seattle!) get to enjoy that we do not. Seattle has more Vegetarian and Vegan restaurants, more gay bars, professional sports teams, and their Link Light Rail goes all the way to the airport. They also have a median home price that is DOUBLE that of Tacoma’s- and, as of Spring 2014, an insane sellers market complete with bidding wars. Get this. Agents in Seattle tell sellers to make buyers do their home inspections BEFORE they write offers on the house. So you might have 8 people looking at a house, all paying home inspectors $400-$500, and they DON’T EVEN KNOW IF THEY’RE GOING TO GET THE HOUSE.
That there is craziness. That said, when the market is as hot as it is in Seattle, sellers call the shots and get what they want.
That’s why I was so excited to see a post from my friend and one of my favorite Seattle Real Estate Agents, Kim Colaprete from Team Diva Real Estate. She’s taking a stand against this madness and advising her clients NOT to demand preinspections from their buyers:
How is saying no to the pre-inspection better for the sale? Well, beyond protecting the seller from risk, it also allows them greater access to ready, willing and qualified buyers. Making the pre-inspection a “must-have” for an offer to be competitive means driving away strong buyers who are fed up with spending thousands of dollars fighting for homes they might not get. There are many excellent buyers with stellar financing willing to pay top dollar for a home, but not willing to throw away their hard earned downpayment money on pre-inspection after pre-inspection. So why limit the pool? We are doing a disservice to our sellers by restricting the number of buyers willing to jump into the game by insisting on a pre-inspection. We say, “Open the gates and bring on the offers!” – Kim Colaprete, Let’s Say “Good-bye” to Pre-Inspections!
This is a huge stand for an agent to take. It’s no skin off her nose if buyers waste money on house after house, except she knows that this actually wears down buyers emotionally and depletes the cash they have to bring to the purchase. This is BAD for real estate in the long run and is a practice that is fundamentally lame. I’m so pleased she wrote this post and took this stand, and I totally have your back Kim!
Are you thinking about taking advantage of Tacoma’s friendlier real estate market? Contact me.
