My husband and I are somewhat leery of condos and the problems they could have, so a professional inspection would be needed for us personally, regardless of our financing. When we have made offers on houses, we have waived having our own inspection, however the listing came with a warranted, independent inspection.

After you get a FULL disclosure signed by the seller that everything works, 30 day guarantee. Have a loan secured before you shop....then you make a CASH AS IS offer/with a list of things wrong with the place, often things that need fixing before a loan would go through...with money you have put on file with your real estate agent(assuming you have one?). You need to prove you have the funds available to the party your offering it to...so they can be sure you are legit. I offer a 30 day to close window so the seller has time to move the staging items out...or what ever is left in the house or attic, but I also offer a "close as soon as you'd like" clause. I once closed in 3 days. I also put a 24 hour, some times a 12 hour end date/time on my offer. If they don't respond or counter or decline....I can move on quickly.

Letters make you sound desperate....like they asked too little or like you'd pay more you love it so much. Letters mis-represent you. Unless....it says all offers will be looked at and after 14 days a decision will be made.

Plan on making several offers before getting a hit....a chance. Also know that people ahead of you can back out of their offer....so putting in a backup offer CAN pay off. Happy shopping! 😼

The market here in SoCal pretty much means an offer well over the asking price, and cash will definitely get you closer. We received a few of the persuasive letters (with family photos) you mentioned when we sold our house. I can’t say they swayed us but were interesting to read. We simply went with the highest cash offer.

I do know of a couple situations where letters to sellers did sell the house, and not for the highest offer. Likely very rare these days.

I haven't bought a house in almost 40 years but I do know the sellers of my house knew both interested parties (us and another couple) and the owner wanted us so she gave us privileged info so we could act before them. If I am the seller, I will want letters because this is a historic house with a plaque out front , and I want like-minded people to buy it. I realize this would not be legally binding.

WRT letters, our realtor told us we had to provide one once, complete with family photo. I felt incredibly stupid complying, but with everyone offering cash, above asking, you gotta try. We didn't get that house.

There was a gorgeous house in our neighborhood on half an acre, which is huge for our town, very few of those lots. The owner had no financial needs, shall we say. Her late husband was an Intel founder. She did, however love her house and spent a lot of money making it and the gardens just so. She sold the house for less money than it was worth, only asking the house not be scraped. Well you know what happened ... She stayed in he same neighborhood, only moved so she would have a one story house, and it pained her every time she saw the house, and it's amazing landscaping gone.

When we bought the house in Cathedral City (a resort town), we allowed the owner to leave as much behind as she wanted, and she left just about everything - except the liquor and clothes. Someone else had bid a bit higher than we had, but they required that the house be empty, and so they lost out.

A lot of houses here are sold furnished, as they are not primary houses, and the sellers may not have a place to put all of the furniture. If we had not allowed the previous owners to leave their furniture behind, we would have had to buy new furniture for it, which I was prepared to do, but as it worked out, we are still using quite a bit of the furniture that came with the house - especially in the bedrooms. We did eventually donate most (but not all) of the furniture in the living room, and we got rid of almost all of the accessories (except for a few vases) throughout the house. The previous owner liked fake plants, and they had collected a lot of dust.

I think the previous owners bought a house in Florida after they sold this one, as their children did not like Palm Springs but did agree to visit their parents in Florida. They were originally from Ottawa Canada, and so Florida was closer. They only came here to play golf in the winter and spring.

According to Kevin O"Leary of Shark Tank, cash sale and 2% to 3% over asking price! The market is absolutely insane! I have family outside Boston and as it is now, they will never be able to buy. They've lost out on 3 and are very discouraged!

In your opinions, when do you think this house market will be normal again? Will it crash? What's going on? Why is it so crazy? I'm just trying to plan for retirement and I have narrowed my choices down to two condo buildings. I'm not in a hurry.

When bought our desert house last year we went in a couple of percent over asking and waived that the house appraise at the sales price. That worked for us. I was a nervous wreck waiting for the appraisal, it turned out fine though. The sellers would not have sold to us without waiving the appraisal amount due to the rapidly increasing pricing.

It is so crazy out there, I was worried we were buying at the top of the market. Our value has gone up $120k (20%) since we bought our house, 9 months ago. Expect the value to head downwards before too long.

Even with the crazy market, it will still vary by location. I'd spend energy interviewing buyer's agents, and choose one who has a track record of getting offers accepted for their client.

“In your opinions, when do you think this house market will be normal again?”

Really hard to say, and it depends on what ”normal” even is.

It’s truly pretty crazy. There was a bidding war with the house we sold but also with the one we bought. That was in 2013 and it’s gotten more nuts since then. Prices can’t keep escalating like this. I feel terrible for young people just starting out.

It will crash eventually. It always has. And people will be in houses that they owe so much more than they're worth. If they sell, they won't be able to get what they owe. Thankful we aren't house shopping during these crazy times.

Paul Krugman is fairly certain interest rates will rise. Jerome Powell has certainly indiated that the punch bowl is leaving the party. So it will be more expensive to borrow in the coming months and probably years, though how many years, who knows.

I imagine the number of true cash buyers will determine how this impacts various markets.

Why is there a shortage of houses? Did every one decide to buy during the pandemic?

Interest rates are going up--that will slow things down a bit. Unfortunately most are bidding against corporations that have cash, don't care about inspections as they plan to rent them out, and offer at least 10% over asking. As Lars pointed out there are often 'other' reasons a person chooses one offer over another so it's often a crap shoot. Good Luck!!

A 30 year fixed mortgage is around 5% now and some analysts are saying it reach 7% by years end. That should help drive out the flippers and corp buyers a bit and stabilize prices. When we bought this home 20 years ago during another growing bubble we offered the seller his price rounded up to the next $1,000 if he held it for us pending an inspection. The inspector found about $3,000 worth of repairs and the seller reduced his price by that amount. It was a FSBO so we had a good acquaintance with the seller. His family did not want to move but he got a job transfer 2 states away and had to sell. We got lucky. When will this housing bubble pop? - as with every bubble it is predictable >>> it will pop when we least expect it.

There is a shortage of houses because children grow up and buy them. Communities, however, refuse to allow for more housing stock to be built in order to protect the prices of the houses already built and occupied by highly engaged voters. The potential buyers and the environment which are harmed by these policies do not have a seat at the table where local jurisdictions make the calls.

NB The environment is harmed by building more sprawl in the middle of nowhere.

Don't people die and then those houses are available? Aren't people having fewer children?

I wish our community would refuse to allow more housing stoxk to be built. Around here, it’s knock down one house and build three on the same lot.

Fortunately, our population is still growing. Once we are no longer able to keep our population up via children and immigration, get ready for some serious unpleasantness.

Our economy was designed for growth. See Social Security ratios for one thing, then look at nursing home staffing, and consider who is going to take care of the aged in this country, to say nothing of who is going to keep fueling our economic engine. I for one, have no interest in subsistence farming ;-)

According to the US Census Bureau, immigration is set to be the biggest driver in US population growth going forward.

Pray people keep wanting to come here, because otherwise, we will be in the same spot Japan has been in for decades- A country unable to meet growth targets through reproduction and unwilling to accept immigrants, equals a country mired in stagnation in perpetuity.

The good news is, the Chinese are in the same boat (that one child policy turned out to be a bum deal after all. ) And like the Japanese, immigration is not a viable option for meeting growth demands in China.

https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/working-papers/2009/demo/us-pop-proj-2000-2050/analytical-document09.pdf

PS And all that inflation folks are complaining about these days, looks like a labor shortage, especially at the bottom end is a big part of the problem.

In my area....Colorado...they're building BIG houses, 3000sq ft & up, with BIG price tags. Smaller homes, that's where the shortage is. They're not building condo's either, because of builder liability. So builders here are tired of being sued every time a wall cracks due to settling. There's a condo shortage too.

You asked, "Don't people die?"...leaving a home behind. These BIG houses you see...older people who can afford them...buy them. Young people starting out can't afford a big house. 👼

Prices are predicted to keep climbing, then crash in two years. But....crash to where.....to the price they were two years prior....maybe?

“In my area....Colorado...they're building BIG houses, 3000sq ft & up, with BIG price tags.“

It’s the same in CA. Large homes and also on very small lots. There’s no room for a garage so the fronts of homes are mostly driveway and garage. Lovely.

@chloebud...the OP asked why there was a shortage of affordable homes. I tried to answer that by saying small homes are affordable...and they're not being built. There's a shortage. ie: In Detroit the housing market is different. That's why I said what market I was observing.

@lettersatoz....I received a letter, on the last home I sold, telling me their child was disabled and the school district my home was in had tons of government money for just this purpose and they had no students to use it on. By NOT selling them my house I would be keeping them from giving their daughter her best life.

I wonder what the legal fall out would have been if I had not sold my home to this family and sold it for the same price to another?

I have every intention to discriminate on the next two houses I'll inherit, and even mine if I decide to sell it. These 2 homes belong to the silent generation, they will die soon and will transfer to me on death, and the last thing on earth I will allow is a corporation to buy and rent these houses.

So I plan to list them as owner occupancy only! I will not allow investors to buy or bid on these homes and want them to go to young families and don't care if I leave money on the table, I just don't care. Many government agencies only allow owner occupancy bids so why can't I. Would this be discrimination?

27% of homes last year were sold to corporations to become rentals, and the worst part is the federal Reserve bought the corporate bonds financing these home purchases. First time in history the Fed's has purchased these types of corporate bonds so you can blame your own government for part of the problem, and sickening.

Coincidentally, kevin, we were wondering about that too. We have an elderly relative who would be so much better off in a retirement community. It would help convince her to move if she could sell her house to a teacher, first responder, nurse, other 'deserving' type person. But what's to stop a buyer from closing on elderly relative's house one day, then selling it for a hefty profit the next day to the "evil landlord corporation." The only thing I could think of (other than renting it to the 'deserving person' directly but she doesn't want to do that) would be some sort of lease-to-own deal. Is there a simpler way to actually control what happens after you sell? (and yes, I totally realize the elderly relative is not being realistic ... but that ship already sailed.)

Fortunately, our population is still growing.--I read last year was our first where we were not at replacement...no children will impact a lot of places.

Over the years people have actually left letters on my front porch asking me to call them when I sell this house. The last one was probably a decade ago and I'm sure all these people have moved on and I lost their letters anyway.

I have had three adult offspring purchasing homes in the last two years. First time home owner type homes in the largest towns in their respective states--three different states. They all went through multiple lost offers. Oldest daughter wrote a letter. Not much beats 'no inspection' when a home is as old as many of these are. There is just too much that could show up. I really feel for the neighborhoods that will not have these rentals by absentee landlords on them. It doesn't bode well. There was a time realtors went shopping for clients--baiting people with hints of buyers..they have plenty of work these days.

"My husband and I are somewhat leery of condos and the problems they could have, so a professional inspection would be needed for us personally,"

Interesting view -- for me, I am less concerned about an inspection for a condo, and more concern about one for a house. That said, not getting an inspection is a given term in the market here, and when I bought a house a few weeks ago, I bought it without a professional inspection. (they did have well water test results, though - I wouldn't have bought without at least that).

There are definite signs of the raging market here slowing to just become a hot market, though - the seller accepted offers on a set day, hoping to set up a bidding war. There were 4 offers and all were sent back, encouraging us to improve our offer to "set us apart from the pack" (the pack of 4?). Apparently all 4 of us refused to increase our offer, so an hour after having my offer refused, they accepted my offer. I guess they had already bought, and had to come to the realization that their house wasn't worth as much as they were hoping it was. I think what got them to accept my offer was my willingness to accept their preferred 30 day closing.

Congrats toronto-veterinarian on your new house!

We Have been receiving letters, postcards, text messages from people/companies every month for the past 2 years, they are going after off market homes.

Did you know there is something called an escalation clause? I didn't, but a friend of mine just bought a home and put this clause in his offer. It would allow him to offer a certain amount over the highest offer. This is how he got a house in a hot market.

"27% of homes last year were sold to corporations to become rentals"

I find this "stat" highly suspect. What is the source? Is this the output of conspiracy theorists?

Residential rentals are usually a one here, one there mom and pop affair. Renting a home after moving out and buying another, or acquiring homes in other ways. Those who are in the real estate business as a business are realtors, commercial sales and leasing brokerages, or developers who build and sell or build and hold. Rarely those who acquire and rent out residences.

I'm not sure what is implied with the use of the word "corporation". If I as an individual were to buy a single family home for rental purposes (which in many areas of the US is a cash negative proposition), I might put it into an LLC for liability isolation purposes. That's a corporation that would be owned by me as an individual, really no difference than if I owned it directly.

I think it's foolish and risky to buy real estate without getting an inspection. It's fine if the seller won't accept having approval of an inspection as a general contingency and/or won't accept the results of an inspection to be a matter for further discussion. But I would always try to have a short rescission period, maybe 2 or 3 days, so that I could arrange for an inspection to be done (for my purposes) so that if any potential major problems were found, I could back out.

For me, no one house or location is so important as to risk falling into a black hole of problems. It's too great of a financial risk with an other than newish property, hot market or not.

Thanks, summersrhythm_z6 - now all I need to do is sell and close on my condo unit - fast.

"27% of homes last year were sold to corporations to become rentals"

I don't see this as a bad thing -- most communities need more rental homes (both houses and apartments), and more small houses. I'm talking about annual rentals, not short-term, Air BnB style rentals. That's especially true with the crazy purchasing market going on now, and so many people who can't afford to buy.

What Elmer said. It's amazing to me that people would buy any sort of property without an inspection. Even brand-new places can have problems: there are upscale condos near us that were built just a few years ago that have been plagued by major plumbing issues. Without knowing what's going on with the foundation, electric, water, etc. systems you could be setting yourself up for major costs down the road in terms of time, money, and aggravation.

@Bookwoman...ALL problems can be handled quickly and easily if a knowledgable buyer gets it. Most problems are found when we gut a kitchen or bathroom. We gut ALL kitchens and bathrooms on old houses we buy. Then put in a NEW furnace & hot water heater. A lot of people have the skills to do this....we own a "few" houses.

@Toronto Veterinarian...Congrats on your home purchase! We also had the experience of being told to raise our offer....when we didn't...a month later we were contacted, told if we offered $17k more the house was ours. We refused it. (the house owner died & a lawyer had set a price they would accept. A flipper offer fell through)

We also get letters, calls, contacts through our Property manager that "they want to buy our properties". I told one phone caller this was harassment, he needed to stop.

I noticed land prices are going crazy around here too, not just houses. There aren’t many avaiable lots these days, a few on the market all have crazy prices. We are running out of land too. About. 2-3 years ago the previous owner of our new (old ) home offered a neighbor $15,000 for a piece of land (0.25 acres) that sitting next to their property. They refused it, they thought the price was too high. Two days ago the wife asked me if I’d sell them that lot. She was so disappointed when I said no. They missed the train without knowing back then. The housing market may not cool down for a long while. If you find something you like, grab the chance so you won’t regret later.

The housing market may not cool down for a long while. If you find something you like, grab the chance so you won’t regret later.

Perhaps, housing is such a huge investment right now. It might be a wise grab, then again, if it does cool down in a couple of years, there may be some who are buying now at exorbitant prices and may have to sell at a loss.

'if it does cool down in a couple of years, there may be some who are buying now at exorbitant prices and may have to sell at a loss."

While drops in market prices are always possible, whether this is a risk or not will vary significantly with geography and property types. It's probably a risk in some areas and not a risk in others. A risk with some price points in some local real estate market and not with others.

Go in with your absolute top bid you are willing to pay, there will be no counter offers. No inspections, flexible closing, pay all closing costs. My son and his wife have been shopping since January and learned the hard way on the house they were in love with. They bid over asking but didn't go to their max thinking they needed to leave room to up their offer. Buyer chose other buyer (probably higher bid, we don't know) and put my son and his wife as back up.

Also, another thing I heard some buyers are doing is putting in their offer and then adding an amount(based on house price) to add as a bonus if they accept offer by that a specific time. Example, offer is $300,000.00 but will add $10,000.00 if offer accepted by 8pm that night. Sounds crazy but I guess if you have been looking and bidding for a while you are willing to try whatever.

After moving from NY to Florida 12 yrs ago, we started looking for a house. It was after the market /housing crash. We were lucky our daughter and husband owned a home in an area that was considered desirable, on the water. We stayed there for 6 months while house shopping.

What we saw during that time was massive foreclosures, throughout the area we wanted to live. It was horrifying. Beautiful homes being foreclosed, parts of the house removed by the owners...sinks, tile, doors, etc. Things you wouldn't even imagine. These homes were being sold by banks. We told our Realtor we didn't want to see foreclosed homes.

After dealing with that, we looked at homes that were lived in. We made over 7 offers on homes that we liked, were in the area we wanted to move. We always had inspections and title search done. We were cash buyers.

It was amazing, still amazes me how many had major problems not visible. Some termites, others no permits, one had rats in the attic which would take over a year to remove. I was surprised how many people did additions, decks, pools without getting permits. We walked away from all of them. We spent so much money on inspections, but I am glad we did. Apparently people hire contractors who don't apply for permits in Florida. Never happen in NY.

I see a similar scenario happening now. People over-paying for real estate and when interest rates climb they can't afford the mortgage. It took approximately 10 yrs for real estate to become overpriced. My guess, is prices will start to come down when people walk away from homes they can't afford. Maybe 10 yrs.

"It took approximately 10 yrs for real estate to become overpriced."

Perhaps that's location dependent, or perhaps it depends on the definition of "overpriced". For instance, homes here have been overpriced, by most people's definition, for over 20 years at least -- or, one could say they're not overpriced for this market, just relative to other cities.

There will always be house-poor people who buy homes they can't afford when interests rates rise.......that's a quirk of human nature, not expecting things in the future to be tougher than they are now. The locations might change, but the situation is always the same.

I had saved this post and it's pretty interesting to read it again. No crash, folks, just higher interest rates and higher prices than ever. One of my kids and her family are trying to buy something, but it sure is tough. (Bay Area, CA)

When we bought our house, we knew that it had been on the market for some time, with the price being reduced several times. It belonged to a church- it had been their minister's home but a newer house was built for him elsewhere so they wanted to sell this one. We found out from the realtor that there had been two offers which fell through so we figured the church committee overseeing the sale were probably fairly over the whole thing so we made a firm offer nearly 10% below the asking price. The realtor didn't think the committee would accept it but we figured we could always go up but we couldn't go down. As it turned out, we got a call the very next day that our offer had been accepted.

When we bought our city flat, we knew at the open house that another couple were very interested. It was a really good deal: rooms were large, plenty of parking (unlike everywhere else we had inspected)the unit was part of a strip of four with retiree neighbours in a quiet inner city semi-prestige suburb street. We already had our finance in place and we knew the owner was keen for a quick, no fuss sale so at the open house we told the realtor we would offer the asking price with quick settlement. We ended up going back to her office to sign the contract.

I'm in a unique situation. My apartment lease ends on March 1st . I have to give mgmt 60 day move out notice. That's approximately December 20th. So I would have to be pre-approved in October, look for condo in November, and buy by December to close in January. If I go past 60-day date I will get penalty added on. If everything works out I can take my time packing and move in February.

All three of my offspring purchased homes post COVID. I didn't think it wise--the market was sooo high but now it's worse with the interest rates out of control. At this point there is not way they could ever afford to trade up. What a mess our economy is.