I Bought 6 Houses by Age 35, Here’s How To Find a House in a Tough Market

I bought my first condo at age 27. My husband and I were recently married, and I thought the natural next step was to buy a “house.” We were living in Boston at the time, and has almost zero knowledge of the local real estate market, how much money we needed to close on a property or what sort of competition we’d be up against. But off we went, all bright-eyed and clueless.

It was the spring of 2014, and we got ourselves a real estate agent and started looking at the MLS. We pretty quickly realized that we were going to be priced out of our current neighborhood, the South End, and set our sights on nearby Southie. After a couple of weeks, we found a place we really liked, we put in a full-price offer, promising to put 5% down. And we learned within hours that there were 14 other offers on the place, including multiple all-cash offers.

This pattern continued for weeks. We’d go on tours, put in offers, and get not just beat out, but absolutely pummeled by people who would go 10% over asking price with all cash.

We didn’t have more than 3.5-5% to put down on a property, depending on the asking price, so I knew we couldn’t compete with the buyers who were going above ask and promising cash. and we knew we had to change our strategy. Instead of looking at the new homes that came on the market, we changed our search to only look at homes that had been on the market for longer than 30 days. This way, we were almost sure to avoid bidding wars, since people obviously weren’t clamoring for these homes. Of course, it meant compromising some things on our wish list.

BUT! We ended up getting an offer accepted on a new construction condo within a week of our strategy change. it was a few blocks outside of our desired area (in a neighborhood that was still up-and-coming at the time) and it was only 450 square feet. But it was ours.

That first experience with house hunting taught me one of my most valuable real-estate lessons, and I’ve used it with almost every house we’ve bought since. Below, I’ll share more about how I’ve used the 30-day strategy and other tips we’ve used to win houses in competitive markets, below.

Look for homes that have been on the market for a while.

My husband and I bought our second home, a 3-bedroom cape in Hingham, Mass. just 18 months after we bought our condo, in 2014. We wanted to keep the condo as a rental, so we had a tight budget because, at least according to the bank, we’d have to be able to carry both mortgages on our current income.

If you don’t know anything about the South Shore of Boston, it’s a highly desirable and highly competitive market. Most of the homes in the towns of Hingham, Cohasset and Scituate, at the time, were way out of our price range. But, I started only looking at homes that were on the market for a while. We found a cape that had been lingering for months. It was on the small side, but mostly just needed cosmetic updates. It was also right on a train track, but it was a commuter train that only ran about 10 times a day (mostly when we would be at works, anyway).

We put an offer in (5% down again) and got the house for under asking price, at $419,000. After doing basic upgrades, like painting walls, painting kitchen cabinets and adding a subway tile backsplash, and swapping light fixtures, we sold the home 9 months later, when we moved to Seattle, for $479,000.

Which brings me to my next tip:

Look for homes with potential (& keep an open mind)

I have never bought a perfect home. The perfect homes, that are 100% updated, in an established neighborhood with mature landscaping, are the ones that everyone wants. By all means, if the market conditions are favorable and you have the funds, bid on these homes. But if you’re struggling to find a house in a tough market, you’re going to need to look at the homes with potential.

Pretty much every house we’ve lived in, except for that first new construction condo in Boston, has been really ugly when we bought it. The state of the houses has ranged from simply dated (our condo in Chicago and ski cabin in Vermont) to complete gut-renovations (the lake house we bought in Michigan while living in Chicago). We have never faced a bidding war for a fixer upper, and have often gotten them at under asking price.

Simple cosmetic changes can often go a really long way in making a house feel updated. Things like painting walls and cabinets, adding a backsplash in the kitchen, replacing bathroom tile and bedroom carpet, and swapping light fixtures are fairly simple changes that make a big difference. If you’re buying a home in a tough market, keep an open mind about the ugly ducklings.

Check just outside the “hot” areas.

We have also had success with buying homes just outside of the ideal areas where everyone else wanted to live. Like I mentioned, our first condo was juuust on the wrong side of South Boston to be considered desirable at the time, but we saw potential for the area to thrive over the next few years. It did, and we eventually sold the condo for almost double what we paid for it.

When we were moving to Chicago, I wanted to live in Wicker Park, but all of the homes there were just outside of our budget, and we faced similar bidding war conditions that we’d seen in South Boston years earlier. So, we expanded our search to the outskirts of the neighborhood, and ended up with a condo that we were the only offer on.

Write a letter

When we were selling our house in Hingham, we had three offers on it. Two of those offers came with a letter from the seller about why they wanted the house. I had never heard of writing a letter with an offer before, but it made a difference in how we looked at the offers we had. The offer without a letter was tossed out almost immediately because we felt like we had more of a connection with the people who wrote them. Obviously, if you’re up against an offer than 10k over what you’ve offered, a letter might not help your cause. But, if a seller is deciding between 2 similar offers, a letter might be what wins you the house.

So, those are my tips! Overall, I think it’s important to really just explore all your options, even if they aren’t exactly what you’re looking for. If you’re smart about it, you can always sell the house in a few years for a profit that will help you buy something you really love.