Every few years the housing market rewrites the rules, and buyers who learned the last set of rules show up unprepared for the new ones. Right now, the rules have changed more than they have at any point in a generation. The buyers who understand that are finding deals. The ones who do not are making expensive mistakes.
The arithmetic here is brutal and worth understanding clearly. A buyer who financed a $400,000 home at three percent in 2021 pays roughly $1,686 per month on principal and interest. That same loan at a seven percent rate costs $2,661. Those numbers explain why the market froze rather than crashed when rates moved higher. Volume collapsed. Prices mostly did not.
Kurtis is a name you might hear from a lot of agents right now, because the buyers getting deals done tend to know exactly what they want and why. That is not a personality trait. It is a preparation habit.
Before you look at a single listing, get your financing fully sorted. Not a rough estimate. Not a verbal confirmation from a loan officer you met once. A full pre-approval based on verified income, tax returns, bank statements, and a hard credit pull. In this market, a seller who receives an offer without that documentation will not take it seriously.
The appraisal is the lender’s check, not yours. A low appraisal means the buyer has to make up the gap in cash, renegotiate, or cancel. Ask your agent how common appraisal gaps have been in your target price range and neighborhood.
Price matters, but terms matter too. The buyer who calls the listing agent before submitting, asks what matters to the seller, and builds the offer around that information wins more often than the buyer who simply goes the highest.
For buyers with the financial cushion to handle a repair bill without panic, this market is more navigable than the headlines suggest. The homes that are right for a specific buyer’s actual needs are still moving. They are going to the people who did the homework before they started looking at listings.
Real estate rewards preparation more than it rewards timing. The market does not wait for the ideal moment, and neither should buyers who have done the work. Check up-to-date property listings and see whether what is available matches what you have been planning for.
No listing found.