Open houses are an iconic part of the house listing process. Opening a home on Saturday and Sunday from 10am – 4pm for any walk-in visitor, neighbors, or interested home buyer with directional signs pointing towards the home now feels nostalgic. Open houses are efficient — they get people in the door without a scheduled appointment and make it easy for prospective buyers to preview a property sometimes even more than once before submitting an offer. It is common for a buyer who stops by on Saturday morning to come back in the afternoon or next day for a more serious look. 

 

Good news: on May 12th, the state of California released a change to the public health order. The change permitted open houses for real estate as long as they follow the tiered levels of the state’s reopening on gatherings. Although you may have seen the occasional open house this past year, the pandemic removed open houses from the standard of practice for listing agents.  

The Running of the Bulling: Listing and Selling Faster than Ever

Are you running quickly to the first open house that you see? 
With the frenzy of the current real estate market, it seems like home buyers, sellers, and their real estate agents are participating in the Running of the Bulls. “The Running of the Bulls is a free-of-charge bullrunning over an 875-meter course in front of six fighting bulls accompanied by six tamed bell-oxen that lead the bulls through the narrow streets of Pamplona and up as far as the bullring.”

Sometimes real estate has local trends that we can say are only happening in Southern California. However, this hot market is across America. 

 

This “running of the bulls” market with home buyers racing towards an offer getting accepted includes:
– offering over asking
– waiving contingencies
– shortening inspection periods
– 17 and 21 day escrows
– all cash offers
– multiple offers

Many Californians are moving out of state. Whether they sold a home here or decided to stop renting in Southern California and buy out of state, these home buyers are creating extra pressure on the states they are moving to. This is heating up the market in states like Idaho, Texas, Nevada, and Colorado. A North Texas article reported that “A home listed for $1 million sells for $1,300,000…Those $50,000 or $100,000 bids over what the seller is asking aren’t on million-dollar homes”** but on homes in the $500-700K range. 

 

Curious about how much your home could sell for?

Ready to get into the home buying race?

We promise to act in your best interest and help you get there.

 

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This content is not the product of the National Association of REALTORS®, and may not reflect NAR's viewpoint or position on these topics and NAR does not verify the accuracy of the content.