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I went through this but was lucky enough to do it 3 years ago. Our price point wasn't above a million but was around 600-700k. For good schools that pushed us o
by hijinks 11y ago
I went through this but was lucky enough to do it 3 years ago. Our price point wasn't above a million but was around 600-700k. For good schools that pushed us out to the Tri-Valley area of the east bay where we finally bought a house.
We looked for 18 months. It got to the point where I'd leave work if a house came on the market on a Thursday so we could have our offer in on Friday. We were out-bid 12 times for all cash offers, mostly from overseas investors I was told.
We finally found a house where an older lady was selling the house where she raised her kids in and after I saw it I went back the next day and knocked on her door and showed her some pictures of my family and almost begged her to pick our offer. We ended up having to bid +45k over asking.
The funny part is if I sold the house right now, I wouldn't be able to afford to buy it back.
- nailer 11y ago> We were out-bid 12 times for all cash offers, mostly from overseas investors I was told. I understand this is the case, but I don't know why it's better for the seller if the buyer pays cash: say the buyer takes out a mortgage to buy their house, doesn't the buyer's bank pay the seller in cash?
- krampian 11y agoThings tend to go faster with cash buyers. In particular, no risk the bank will decline them for a mortgage. I suppose there's less difference if they're preapproved.
- spiralpolitik 11y agoEven preapprovals can fall through as the bank can decline to fund when they see the home in question or the valuation comes in lower than the sale price. In a hot market cash is king as it removes 2 of 3 most common contingencies people have. For the seller this is two less weeks where things can fall through.
- bobby_9x 11y agoLess paperwork and a quicker closing date.
- lockes5hadow 11y agoThere is zero risk of the deal falling through because the buyer's mortgage fails. In booming markets, people will make offers and then find they can't actually get a mortgage for that amount. For example, sometimes the bank will refuse the mortgage if the house doesn't appraise close to the value of the offer.
- pkaye 11y agoGreater chance of the deal going through. If they have so much cash they are also less likely to bail out on a small undiscovered defect. The first offer we made on a house a few years back, the other bidder offered 50% cash so even though we were $10K more with 20% down, we lost out.
- phamilton 11y agoWe literally did the same thing 18 months ago. 600k-700k, tri valley, appealed to the owner on grounds of nostalgia for raising their kids there, overpaid 30k. After a year we were in a position where we couldn't afford our own house if we sold it.