Right now, there are very few homes on the market. This shortage of inventory has dramatically increased prices and made finding a home difficult for some. One big factor restricting the supply of homes on the market is potential sellers saying 'Bryan, my home is going to sell fast. The neighbor sold in one weekend. I'm worried about how I'm going to find somewhere to go. Every home I look at sells in a day.' I am constantly told that...and I completely understand that concern. I've been using one strategy to mitigate that issue, and it's worked well.

In this market, the seller holds the cards. One of my listings got under contract recently. It listed at $199,900 and we knew there would be a lot of interest. They had outgrown the home, so they needed to move. Their biggest worry was being able to find their next home quickly since they would be using the proceeds from their current home to buy their next. They HAVE to sell to buy.

Our strategy from the beginning was to price the home correctly and strive for a multiple offer situation/auction type scenario. Ask the highest offer to push for a 60-70 day closing period, instead of the typically 30-40 day closing period. One of the buyers that wants the home would have a situation that would well for us...or someone would love the home so much they would work with our timeline no matter what. Those extra 30-40 days for closing give us quite a bit of time to find their next home with a lot let stress. That's exactly what happened! The strongest offer, a 20% down conventional loan, matched the highest of our 5 offers and gave us a 70 day closing time frame.

Like I said, sellers have all the leverage in this market. There are so many aspects of a home sale where you can use it to your advantage and this is just one. If you would like to learn more about the best strategy to list your home, feel free to reach out at my cell 219.776.0622 or email bryan@guttinggroup.com