It appears that the “Bigs”–the large investors–have begun to move their money back into real estate after a lull.  Everyone in the real estate business (those of us who actually work at it) already knew this was going to happen.  The indicators have been suggesting an upward swing in the residential market for about 9 months now.  In November of last year, the real estate market actually bottomed out, and now it is once again on the rise.  Of course, it’s rising from a much lower level than it was in 2005, but it’s rising all the same.

What happened is that the inventory levels are now so low that virtually every agent who lists property finds himself with multiple offers on hand, and his seller selects the best one. This situation actually started to occur sometime in the late winter/early spring of 2009, long before the media began to report it. Those of us in the business found that the agents who had bank-owned property were treating everything as a “silent auction;” the offers would be made, and then later on the successful bidder would hear that his offer was accepted, with all the conditions the bank saw fit to place on the transaction. Shortly thereafter, the cash buyers came out of the woodwork, and then after that, the cash offers began competing with each other. So what’s a homebuyer to do?  Here are some strategies you can use to make sure that your offer gets a good hard first look:

When should I do a short sale?
There is definitely a time to do a short sale rather than wait for the value of your property to increase (please note: this information applies to homeowners only. If you are an investor, please contact me for specific information about this process, and its potential risks and rewards).

1. If you are “buried” in the property, it’s time to think about a short sale.