So, we knew April would be busy, but I don’t think anyone was prepared for how crazy-busy it actually was.
With the $8000 first-time home buyer and $6500 repeat buyer tax credits set to expire April 30, there was a mad rush of buyers madly rushing to get into contract.
We won’t have the final numbers for another week or so, so I don’t yet know if we’ll set any records, but I think I may have set a few personal bests, or worsts:
* Most offers written for one buyer in one week without getting a single one in contract: 6. That’s right, I wrote 6 offers for one buyer in Elk Grove. Each and every time there were multiple offers and we were out-bid.
* Fastest case of cold feet after months for searching for then finding the perfect home: 16 hours. Yes, I had a client with very specific needs and after kissing a lot of frogs, we finally found the one for him. He loved it and told the owner so (we don’t like buyers doing that because it gives away bargaining power). So, Mr. Buyer gets his pre-approval, writes his deposit check, signs the offer and calls me three times while I was in a meeting to check and see if I got his fax. That was about 4pm on the 29th. 8 am on the 30th, he called and said, “I rushed into this. I don’t like that house. I’m not going to be happy there. I don’t need the tax credit. Cancel the deal!”
* Most listings emailed to me by hopeful and anxious buyers only to find that the sellers had ‘just accepted an offer’, a gazillion. Actually, it was just short of a gazillion, but seemed like a gazillion. I was delivering the bad news all day long.
The good news? All of that activity resulted in lots of folks buying homes and grabbing their peice of the American dream. While there are a some disappointed that they didn’t get in, there are many more who are celebrating right now.
Next week we’ll have the numbers that matter; pending sales, closed sales and average prices, days on market, etc. Time will tell if this was a temporary spike, the start of the recovery, or if we’ve still got a rough ride ahead.
What do you think?