It is common for many homebuyers to fall in love with a piece of property and want it more than anything. However, falling in love with it at all costs is where people can get themselves into trouble. You spend time preparing yourself to make a purchase, look at places towards the top of your budget…and BAM, you find the place you want. While you really want it, it is important to stay patient and realize that if you are unable to get it at the price you want and with the terms you want, there may very well be other options coming behind it that are even better. Unless you are looking at the top end of the custom home market, you will likely be able to find something similar. It just may take a little while…and a little bit of patience!

This takes us to our story about Brian, who was looking for either a 1 or 2 bedroom condo in Lower Queen Anne or a few other select Seattle neighborhoods. Brian went from not thinking about buying a home, to being 100% engaged in a matter of a couple weeks. He got his pre-approval, started working with our team and touring homes very quickly. While these are the typical traits of someone who would make a spur of the moment decision, Brian clearly had other plans. 

He was looking for what he felt in his mind was something very specific, so we had a narrow focus on what we were looking at during our first tour. During this first tour, we found a property he really liked. It was in the historic West Queen Anne School building and the place checked many of his boxes. After sleeping on it, he decided to put in an offer with a strategy to get the price and terms he wanted. When the negotiation did not work out and it was clear the gap between buyer and seller was too great, Brian made the decision to hold his ground and wait for something better.

Something better is exactly what he got! The following weekend, we looked at a beautiful condo in the heart of Capitol Hill that was new to the market and checked even more of his boxes than the previous one. He decided to put in an offer and after a series of negotiations we were able to get Brian under contract, below list price and with a seller provided credit towards closing costs of $8,500!    

While it would have been easy to cave and accept the original place at a price and terms he was not comfortable with…Brian had the patience to leave it behind. We were able to reset and come up with a great plan of attack for finding another place…and little did we know, it ended up being the very next weekend that we found his place!