Buyer fatigue and buyer’s agent fatigue are affecting sellers.
We’re currently experiencing the hottest real estate market in history. A side effect of this kind of market is that buyers are becoming fatigued. Buyer fatigue occurs when buyers have been scrambling due to low inventory and have been beaten out so many times on offers that they just give up. The problem now is that buyer fatigue is affecting sellers.
In April, there was a nationwide average of 4.2 offers per house. For our team, locally, that number was roughly around 7.2 offers per house. At the end of May, the nationwide average dropped to 3.8 offers per listing, while our team’s average dropped to about 5.8.
Real estate shifts very slowly but what we saw one weekend was not normal. We listed 14 properties and traditionally 10 or 11 of those 14 would be gone on the weekend. We could expect up to 20 offers over asking price, but we only saw four good offers.
I looked at April’s data compared to May, and month over month it was very similar. Everything was slightly down. The data showed that homes were selling quickly, but we noticed that homes were selling a bit more slowly. Instead of about four days on market, the average went up to about nine days on market.
“As a seller, it’s important to know that values are still going up.”
We listed a property in Happy Valley at $469,000. The first weekend, we had three offers and the highest offer we had was $475,000. In April, that wouldn’t have happened. That would have gotten pushed up to $500,000.
My seller asked if we should take that offer. I told them that I think the data is telling us that we’re seeing buyer fatigue. People are slowing down and not making crazy offers that first weekend. We waited through the next weekend and we had 11 offers. The price was pushed to nearly $500,000. We talked to the agents that made those offers the second weekend and asked them why their buyer didn’t look at it before. They told us that they were tired of getting beaten out over and over again, and they didn’t think they could compete.
When you list a property in this market, we might get 10 to 15 offers, but if the offer that’s on the table is not what we expected, it is likely because of this buyer fatigue mentality. We’re seeing people coming into the game a bit later. If you get impatient, you could cost yourself thousands of dollars.
We’re also seeing buyer’s agent fatigue. Unrepresented buyers sometimes come to us directly because buyers’ agents are just tired. They’ve shown so many houses without a win and they’re giving up as well. As a seller, it’s important to know that home values are still going up. Your days on market are still great but it might take two weekends to sell instead of one. That is still much faster than homes have sold historically.
If you have any other real estate questions, please reach out to me. I’m here to help you out.
