Seller’s Market (Follow up to previous post)
I write about this today to not seem arrogant or say, “I told you so,” but rather to speak to the realities of the market.
No sooner than the day after writing the last post, I had the exact same situation I wrote about——again! We received a new listing for a beautiful apartment in a prestigious and historical building in Biarritz and immediately had a list of people lined up to come visit.
Personally, I had two very serious buyers and despite my advice to make a full price offer for the apartment, neither of them did. The first buyer wanted to make a low offer in order to get into negotiations and arrive at a price a bit lower than the listing price and the second buyer decided to make an offer 15,000 euros less than the listing price.
Thirty minutes after the second buyer made her offer, the apartment was sold to another buyer at another agency for full price without any conditions. Both of my buyers were extremely surprised by this and did not expect that the apartment would go so fast and at full price without any conditions.
There is an almost insatiable demand for quality properties in Biarritz. With rising uncertainty in the global economy and financial markets, many more people are now looking to place liquid cash into solid, real estate assets. This is another new trend in the local real estate market and needs to be thought of when you find a home that you want.
So here’s my strategy for knowing when to go “ALL IN” on a property:
Does it match most or all of your criteria?
Before you start visiting any homes, know what you need. If it matches your criteria, it likely matches other buyers’ too.
How long has it been on the market?
If it is newly listed (2 weeks or less) and of quality, it will likely be sold at full price or close to it. This makes it much harder to negotiate as the buyer is in a weak position to negotiate.
Is it unique or rare?
Properties in specific buildings, unique architecture, ocean views, etc. will sell much faster and are less likely to be negotiated.
Do you know the market well enough to compare it to other properties?
If you don’t, immediately run a search and see what else is out there. If nothing else matches the uniqueness and/or quality of the property in question, then you are in a weaker position to negotiate.
To read more about making offers in Biarritz, follow the link below to my last post.
