How Smart Buyers Are Winning Homes in North Jersey Right Now

By William “Bill” Boswell

Bill is widely known as one of New Jersey’s most sought after real estate agents and is a sales associate of Keller Williams Prosperity Realty.

For the first time in a long time, something has shifted in the North Jersey housing market.

Multiple homes are coming on at once. For months, those of us watching closely could see this coming. Winter held back a lot of inventory, and now it’s releasing into the small markets where buyers have spent the better part of a year fighting over single listings. On the surface, this looks like good news. More options. More homes to choose from. More breathing room.

It’s an illusion.

The illusion of options

Here’s what is actually happening. When a single home came on the market a few weeks ago, fifty buyers would jump on it and battle through a bidding war. Now, with multiple homes hitting the market in the same week, those same buyers are still going to gravitate toward one home, the one with the highest perceived value for the price. The competition does not disappear. It just gets concentrated on whichever listing wins the value contest in the buyers’ minds.

If you’re a buyer, this is the moment to slow down and think.

Why most buyers will get this wrong

Most people chase what they think they want most, which is almost always the same home everyone else is chasing. The instinct feels right. You see a property that is priced well, you see the value, and you assume that everyone will see it the same way. They will. That is the problem. The harder you compete for the home with the most attention, the more your odds of winning it drop, and the more you end up paying if you do.

The non-conventional move

Take a step back and look at the rest of the market that just came on. Look at your number two choice. The home that, if it had come on the market two weeks ago by itself, you would have been thrilled to get. In this environment, you might be competing with only a handful of buyers for that home, because everyone else has their eyes locked on the same property.

That single shift in thinking can be the difference between winning a home for a fair price and losing one in a bidding war.

The follow-up move most buyers do not see coming

Here’s the part that makes this strategy even stronger. Once the home everyone is chasing goes to one buyer, all the other offers shift their attention to the next property. Your number two choice becomes their new number one. If you played your cards right and went after that home early, you may already have it locked up before the herd ever turns its head.

That is the play. It’s the opposite of what most buyers want to do, and that is exactly why it works.

Let’s talk about your move

If you’re buying in North Jersey right now and want to talk through the strategy that fits your situation, reach out. Call or text me at 973-224-4605, email me at northjerseyluxury@gmail.com, or visit blog.theomegarealestategroup.com. Your search ends here.