Normalizing Market Brings Back Counter Offers

You gotta love the hype. A Sacramento newspaper headlines the story, Home Prices Head South. It may as well have screamed: "Home Market Tanks." Yet the big dip was a whopping 1 percent reduction in median home sales prices over last year. Other cities in California such as San Diego have experienced a slight drop in appreciation. The market is slowing. It's becoming more normal in California. While overall sales are down and inventory is rising, this is good news to home buyers, especially first-time home buyers who are concerned about getting priced out of the market. It means buyers can once again expect to negotiate with sellers. Negotiation means counter offers are back. In fact, one of my recent transactions involved five counter offers before an agreement was reached between the parties. Count them. Five counters! It just goes to show that home buyers can win big through bickering over counter offers, if it's done correctly.

• How to Write & Handle Purchase Offers
  
• How to Write Offers in a Buyer's Market
  
• How to Write Offers in a Seller's Market