Helpful Tips Buyers Need to Purchase a Home in Missoula's Competitive Market

The Missoula Real Estate Market has become extremely competitive for buyers.  Here are a few things I would recommend to anyone looking at buying a home in Missoula, Montana in 2017.

1) Be Pre-qualified with a LOCAL Lender.  If you are wanting to Submit an offer without a letter from the bank, you can go ahead and submit it into the trash.  It won't go anywhere.  The origin of this letter is also very important.  There are several different Lending websites out there where a buyer can get a letter printed off after simply stating their income and liabilities.  This will not hold up when your offer is sitting next to one with a local reputable loan officer's stamp on it.  Take the time to sit down with a local lender, get them the documentation they need to get you qualified, and know exactly where you stand regarding your purchasing power. 

2) Get listing notifications.  Bottom line: You need to be informed to compete. There are several methods of getting set up to receive real time information about new properties the moment they hit the market.  The easiest way to do this is to talk to your Real Estate Agent and they can have it done in minutes.  What?  Your real estate agent doesn't know how to do this?

3) WORK WITH A FULL TIME REAL ESTATE AGENT!!!  Notice the all CAPS and 3 exclamation marks... It really is that important.  If you are looking to ever get into a home in Missoula, your agent must be available.  They must be out constantly networking and talking with other agents about inventory that is on it's way to the market. They must be actively writing and receiving offers to see what is working and what isn't working.  They must be going to their office meetings and training events to make sure they are up to date on the latest information.

3a) Listen to your Real Estate agent.  If you have in fact hired a full time professional to help you with your purchase: Listen To Them!  If they are advising you to write an offer $5,000.00 over asking price you should likely do it.  What I have seen happen hundreds of times this year alone is a long and extremely painful buyer education process.  What this process looks like is this: A buyer will write several offers that they feel are strong offers, either because of their vast expertise learned from previous real estate transactions, or by simply having the mindset of not paying full price for anything.  This often will result in making up to 10 or even 20 offers on different properties.  A lot of heart ache comes from this process and buyers end up feeling defeated.  Usually, after several losses, buyers will begin to become more and more adept to what their real estate agents are telling them and start following their suggestions.  But,  it still can take several attempts to get an offer accepted even when following the best advice of the professional you are working with.  With that being said, buyers can usually save themselves a significant amount of time and some of this heartache,by listening to the guidance of their Missoula real estate agent early in the home buying process.

There are many more tips and different ways to best position yourself for success in purchasing in Missoula's hot market.  Feel Free to Reach out to me, any of my associates at EXIT Realty Missoula, or your full time real estate professional today to learn more on the topic.