I’m sad to hear stories of what other Realtors are telling buyers they “have to do” in a tough market.

I have yet to sacrifice either having a buyer see a home before making an offer if they are local, or waiving an inspection, and I am still averaging about 1-4 offers per buyer to get an offer accepted. This is in areas like Brandon, St Pete, Sarasota, Tampa, Dunedin, Largo, at price points from 200k all the way up to just under 1M.

I’ve also been able to get offers accepted under asking. I’ve only had one that had to go significantly over in the crazy times of early 2022 but that is because it was an amazing blend of features and was listed WAY under market value (about 30k-40k under what I would have listed it for).

Honestly anyone telling you to waive an inspection contingency is absolute madness. It is in no way shape or form needed or required to get an offer accepted and is needlessly putting your escrow at risk. Honestly I’d worry the agent recommending that is also putting their license at risk by being negligent in their duty to “deal honestly and fairly” and “excercise skill, care, and dilligence”.

Anyways, the market currently is competitve, but like I said, I haven’t had much difficulty getting an offer accepted. I’m at 1-4 offers per buyers versus 1-2 from a few years ago. I track every offer I make in my system, including asking price vs offer price and how it’s structured, to make sure I am understanding where the market is at and trending.

That said, you do have to put together an offer taking in all the specifics and particulars of each and every home, including both current competition, market changes within the last week or two, and engaging the listing agent to try and divine out what the likely competition offers will be. Most agents do not go to these lengths because it is work lol.

On the listing side of things, you would think it’s “easy peasy” but I can tell you I still see agents doing TERRIBLE work and leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table for their clients because of how they are handling the current market. Here’s the thing: The likelihood of a Day 0 offer being the best offer you will get is also about 0. What’s the best way to do it to maximize sales price in a reasonable time frame? If you’re interested we’ll need to meet so I can go over my research and marketing plan for your listing :).

Also a hot market doesn’t mean that cell phone photos with terrible lighting is acceptable.

Basically “selling the home quick” is a terrible litmus test for how well a Realtor is doing their job. It still takes professional skill to market and manage the sale of a home to maximize both the final proceeds from sale for a seller in a reasonable time frame.