Buying a Home in 2022: 7 Strategies to Make Yours the Winning Offer

With extremely low inventory levels in early 2022 (just take a look in changes in inventory for both condos and single family homes in Massachusetts) and slight increases in interest rates doing little to dampen record levels of buyer demand, getting an offer accepted in the Greater Boston market is no easy feat.

Over the last year our agents have seen multiple offer situations where the winning bid has included terms like free lease-back periods for the seller, all expense paid vacations, uncapped escalation clauses and of course waiving all contingencies. The good news is that there are ways to get an offer accepted that don't involve selling your firstborn child. Here are 7 of our favorite strategies, but it's always important to discuss the details of any terms you're considering with your agent:

• Revisit homes that have been on the market for a couple of weeks or more. Some of these were priced too high and buyers who may have otherwise been interested passed them up, expecting they'd sell even higher. Others may have been overlooked for things like poor - or no - photos or lack of staging but due to no issues with the house itself.
• Ask your buyer's agent to look for homes available off-market. Some sellers prefer to sell privately and this often results in fewer buyers making offers. 
• Always make sure your agent finds out what, besides price, is important to the sellers. It may be that something like a specific closing date makes a significant difference.
• Consider decreasing the amount of your mortgage contingency or offering to cover an appraisal gap up to a certain amount. If the house does appraise at purchase price you can still put less down depending on what loan product you're approved for, but if it doesn't the sellers will be assured that you'll still be able to close.
• If you have a back-up plan such as cash or hard money as an option, there is decreased risk in waiving a financing contingency. This can sometimes allow the offer to beat a higher financed offer, plus you still have the option of getting a mortgage.
• If you're planning on a home inspection (which is ideal, especially given the age of our housing stock in Massachusetts), include a repair threshold; this still provides the protection of having a home inspection but gives sellers a level of certainty that you won't be negotiating minor repair items.
• Use an escalation clause, where you agree to increase your offer by a certain dollar amount over the next highest offer, up to what you're comfortable with as a maximum purchase price. Since the seller has to provide proof of the next highest offer, this ensures you aren't bidding against yourself or paying more than necessary to win the property.

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