Maui Sales Newsletter Template

A recent article from Realtor Magazine highlights 5 New 'Rules' to Home Buying. This is still a Buyer's market, but there are some sectors within our Maui market that are showing recovery. This will affect how to proceed with making an offer.

The first rule is that lowball offers won't likely stick. We've had buyers in the past make offers 15 to 20% below market value only to get rejected. We recently had a buyer make an offer on a property $75,000 below the asking price and the seller countered back with a price close to the list price. In the meantime, another offer came on the table, and the buyer ended up increasing his price to what the seller wanted to get.

This leads to another rule of getting realistic about the list price. We will give you all of the market knowledge that you need to make an offer, including what has sold in the past 6 months and what is currently available. In some sectors on Maui, the sales are less than what is available on the market. For example, we've had several sales in the high $700,000 to $800,000 range in Wailea in the past 6 months, but the lowest priced home currently available is over $1 million. You may not be able to get this home as low as the comparable sales due to the supply and demand.

It is important that Buyers are pre-approved. The lending market has tighter restrictions, so it is even more important to get pre-approved prior to making an offer. This will also increase the strength of your offer.

The fourth rule is to expect some competition. This is especially evident for short sales and foreclosed properties. A pre-approved buyer may be competing against an all cash buyer. The bank is mostly concerned with how much money they will net. You will need to look at what you are asking the bank to pay for in terms of seller concessions, termite inspection, cleaning, association documents, survey, and etc. This will all be deducted from the asking price to show the bank what they will net.

The last rule is to conduct a property research. We are happy to pull a property profile on any property that you would like to make an offer on and give you the public records information so that you can see if there are any loans on the property, if the seller is current with their property taxes, how much they paid for their property, etc.

Mahalo Nui Loa,

Greg, Melissa, Ken, and Jeremy

P.S. - Just a reminder that Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday, May 13th. Happy Mother's Day!