What do you need to know if you are shopping for a home in Silicon Valley right now?

First, you need to understand that possibly more than in any other time, it’s a deep seller’s market, meaning you most likely will be competing against multiple offers.

Homes for sale are not as abundant as normal, and there are a lot of buyers trying to purchase a house or condo in the San Jose area.  Not enough supply, too much demand equals multiple offers and rising prices.  (You can check the current Santa Clara County real estate market statistics at popehandy.rereport.com.)

Secondly, if you want a chance at buying a property in Santa Clara or San Mateo Counties, you must have a great “offer package”.

It is imperative that you have a solid down payment, 20% is a minimum standard in our area, but often it takes 25% or more to convince sellers that they should take your offer over the others. Cash is king and you may get out bid by an all cash offer, especially if it’s also a non contingent offer.

If you include any contingencies for inspections, loan and appraisal, they will have to be fairly short to compete in multiple offers.  A 17 day loan contingency is a pretty sure fire way to get eliminated from multiple bids.

Want to avoid a bidding war? You’ll have to be willing to compromise, possibly quite a lot, to be the only offer in this market! But don’t confuse being the only bidder with getting a good deal – homes that have been passed over by other buyers will have problems, some of which may not be “fixable”

Continue reading on the Valley of Hearts Delight blog:
http://sanjoserealestatelosgatoshomes.com/homebuying-in-silicon-valley-today/

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