Going Standby - A Home Buying Strategy

by Karen Briscoe
May 16, 2018

Hot real estate markets occur in those areas and price points that over a period of time experience low supply and high demand.  In those situations in order to be competitive, it takes strong strategy and negotiating skills. In one such case I was working with a purchaser client who had already lost out on 5 contracts.   Shortly before working with this client my husband and I had been traveling by air and thus the “going standby” strategy was conceived.

Our flight was canceled from Dallas/Fort Worth to Washington Reagan due to weather.  The good news is that out of DFW there are numerous flights that depart daily to DCA, our desired final destination.  The bad news is that there were a couple of hundred people from our canceled flight trying to get onto the first available flight.  After unsuccessfully going standby on 3 flights in a row, my husband suggested that rather than continue to compete with the same people we skip a couple of flights to be first in line for a later flight.  That’s what we did and were successful in getting on that flight.  It is always a good feeling to be home in one’s own bed!

As my purchaser client was also a seasoned traveler, he immediately related to the “going standby” story.  We discussed how it would work to compete in a real estate purchase for him.  The next time a couple of town homes came on the market in the communities he had identified as wanting to live in, we were prepared with the strategy. 

Out of those properties, the preferred town home was clearly evident – it had more upgrades and was in a more private section of the community.  The purchaser and I felt that the majority of the buyers in the market at that time would make offers on that home.  There was another town home that was priced a bit less as it had fewer upgrades.  Those constraints were not of concern to my client as his primary objective was to purchase at a good price value. 

Just as in the “airline standby” strategy – we skipped the town home that ended up having eight offers and wrote a strong offer on the least desirable home, “the wall flower”.   This idea proved successful and my client happily settled on the property.

Karen Briscoe and Lizzy Conroy and their team HBC Group at Keller Williams are active and experienced Realtors® in the Northern Virginia, suburban Maryland and Washington, DC market place.  They would be delighted to assist whether for home buying or selling.  Please contact via the means most convenient for you:  www.HBCRealtyGroup.com, 703-734-0192, Homes@HBCRealtyGroup.com.

 
Karen Briscoe is Principal of the Huckaby Briscoe Conroy Group (HBC) and author of "Real Estate Success in 5 Minutes a Day". She is an Associate Broker in Virginia, a Certified Luxury Home Market Specialist, and a member of the Women’s Council of Realtors. Karen began her real estate career developing residential lots with the Trammel Crow Company in Dallas, and in commercial real estate with The Staubach Company in the Washington, DC Metro area. Karen has a Masters Degree from Southern Methodist University and her BA from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri – her hometown.

Keywords

Buying a Home.

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