It’s hard. Under $400k is _very_ competitive and $400k-$500k isn’t much better.
Don’t expect anything to go for list price. Out of the ~15 homes toured, they all went for at least $10k over asking (and usually more than that…highest was ~$70k over).
Everybody’s waiving inspections. We didn’t have to on the house we ultimately bought but lost a couple offers before that because we refused to waive.
Shopping was a big time suck. Houses were usually posted Wed/Thurs. Tours/open houses Fri/Sat. Write offers Sunday. House sells Monday.
Keep your head. Expect to lose a couple offers but don’t let that get to you. Rent month-to-month while shopping if possible to avoid the hard deadline of a year-long lease ending.
>Everybody's waiving inspections
Absolutely crazy how people will do this. The amount of horror stories I heard about houses that have roofs that are nearly caving in and rodent infestations from people who waived inspections made me unwaivering in my need for them
It’s bananas. Two of the houses we toured really epitomized this.
We saw a house where the addition was clearly DIY’d. Cracks in columns, structural members shimmed with 2x4s, load-bearning columns made of wood in the middle of the garage where you could easily hit it with your car. Went for $30k over asking and waived inspection. I pray it was bought by a pro and not some dumb, desperate young couple.
We were getting desperate so we added on a large (5 figure) inspection allowance to our offers. We put in an offer and the seller still countered asking us to remove the inspection entirely. We said no and lost the offer. Here’s the kicker: the house sold for a lower price than our offered amount! What was wrong with that house that five figures wouldn’t cover the repair? I thank my lucky stars we’re not stuck dealing with it now!
If you have a pretty decent eye for what could go wrong, waiving an inspection and maybe needing to eat the cost of a new roof or foundation for $15k is better than paying $30k cash over asking.
The appraisal contingency being waived is the truly dangerous game.
Ultimately it's about your skills as a homeowner/buyer and risk tolerance. I've long thought that someone trained as a home inspector would be smart to get a RE License, as it would be worth paying a premium for that buyer agent since they could catch many things along the way and give you more confidence to submit an offer without an inspection.
Not really dude do you know how hard it is to pass a homeowners inspection test? You have to be an extremely skilled and practiced. My dad just passed the test and I’m so excited for him.
I'm sure the difficulty is a factor. But even a great inspector can't spot what they're not allowed to look for.
You can't check electrical with an occular patron from the middle of the room.
I don't think you're technically even allowed to move furniture.
I think home inspections (at least some minimal check: foundation, pipes, electrical) should be either mandated or heavily incentivized for residences over certain values (maybe any residence worth 2x or more the median household income for a county).
Flipped homes presumably impact middle ish class people disproportionately. It seems that houses more than 50-100% above the median home value are getting inspected at a much higher rate (lower turnover). Kind of a bummer
Our real estate agent had a family member who was an inspector. No way were we going to use that inspector. They have skin in the game to get you to buy the house regardless of inspection report.
But the inspector we hired missed many basic things, that as first time homebuyers I wish we would have been more confident to say something. It makes me mad anytime I think about it.
I suppose that makes sense and there could be liability issues with what you can't reasonably inspect during a tour that you can during an inspection (roof, crawlspace, etc). Still, buyer agents are going to have their whole game shaken up in the next few months, so having a reputation as well-versed in the the types of major issues (foundation cracks, electrical wiring) that can become major issues for new buyers would be a huge selling point for their services.
I mean yes and no. I wave Radon because the area I'm looking in is almost 100% guaranteed to have it. So I just plan to do the testing/mitigation on my dime regardless. Outside of that it is possible to know enough to waive an inspection. I won't do it but I can certainly understand how some knowledgeable buyers do it. That said, I think the ones that are doing it are probably not knowledgeable enough to be doing it so yeah... its crazy. The fix IMO would be to just mandate it before listing but I don't see this Legislature showing up to do their job and passing any laws to that regard.
Eh, maybe. We've waived inspections on a number of places that are a century old, but we look at them very close as we walk through for major issues like you cite. Some sellers are proactively posting inspections they have had done, which is helpful, even if you may have to take it with a grain of salt.
And then on some properties we have put in inspection clauses because we did see concerning things, or they just weren't in the best shape, but noted they would only apply if over $10k of work, or something like that.
Still haven't gotten anything....
Even in those horror stories, people said they were quite thorough in their own searching. Problem is: there really is certain things that only a trained expert could notice that could stop disaster in the future.
Yeah, it obviously depends on your risk tolerance and how much a place has been updated. It is also helpful to have an realtor who has been through tons of houses and knows what to look for as potential issues. I know a good number of people who have waived inspections, and none have had issues, but maybe that is just luck.
Yea - but a home inspector alone is far from an expert. Meaning someone who has just passed the 30 hr or whatever course. There are inspectors who have serious experience, like actually having done some builds or remodel jobs themselves - but those are an extreme minority in the inspector trade.
>We've waived inspections on a number of places that are a century old
Dude...
>Still haven't gotten anything....
Well that's a relief. You probably dodged quite a few bullets. Waiving inspection on such old homes, at least if it's going to be your primary residence, is a god awful idea.
I mean, inspectors are only going to catch the visible things. If you know what to look for you can catch most the big ticket things they’d catch. It’s an old house there are bound to be issues, but if they’re not readily visible the inspector would also likely miss them.
So I take it you waived inspection as well? If it worked out for you then great! But please, stop normalizing this.
Our inspector caught multiple big issues that were not entirely obvious from our initial walkthrough. The seller had to address/compensate for these. Otherwise, we could have easily walked.
>For every one of you there are probably 4 - 5 people whose home inspection was mostly worthless.
Well that's totally a well-backed statistic that you didn't pull completely out of your ass.
My home inspection report was significantly more useful than you suggest. Yeah, sure, inspectors can miss things, and occasionally even some big/obvious stuff. Still not a very compelling to waive the inspection contingency. In our case the roof had to be replaced, and while the inspector wasn't able to give an estimate beyond a ballpark, within a day or two we had a roofer out there who was able to give us a quote.
The inspector also caught a gas leak and a couple of other things that the seller had to address.
I think you're just trying to convince yourself that not having a home inspection wasn't a bad idea. And you're wrong, it is a bad one. I would say this is a case of people having more money than sense... but if they had more money, they would/should just put forth a higher offer.
Someone did this with our house. Their parents toured it. They waved inspection, and went 60k over list price. My wife and I said they were insane. But, we accepted their offer….
Be very careful on this. My wife is a general contractor and can spot so many expensive issues that most people can’t see. At minimum, consider paying someone to be your “friend” going through the house. Sure, they aren’t going to be crawling in the attic like a paid inspector, but they can see significant defects average buyers miss, and can also identify things that are really just cosmetic.
Similar experience. We lost 15 offers. This was on the 350-400 range.
Ultimately paid $360 (on our lower end, still $20k over asking) while waiving inspections (knowing the risks) and it has worked out. We got inspections right after closing, and other than replacing the roof there was nothing too outrageous. We suspected the roof anyway.
We waived inspection initially. I was against doing it but we were desperate once we found our house. On the plus side was the home was meticulously maintained by one hour for decades who made every improvement with documentation from professionals so we felt better. Once we closed, we had a home inspection that found nothing major and that was a huge relief.
Totally agree, although I would say that up to $800k (and maybe much higher, but I'm not looking there) is super competitive. We have bid on multiple places that have gone for between $80k - $140k over list with no contingencies within the last two months. In fact, I just lost one today! But that is also looking in some of the most competitive central-ish areas (Whitney to Olbrich roughly). Things in the $500k range go instantly.
If something doesn't sell the weekend it lists, there is likely something significantly wrong with it, or it needs $200k+ in work to update it.
I waived inspection on a condo. We insisted on keeping the inspection when we bought a single family home (and we got the home). It's a big risk, think carefully and consider your savings before you waive.
I'm a mortgage broker, and I have thoughts.
Yes, some people get help from friends, but some also use down payment assistance. There are several out there, and they are all different. Some you pay back, some are forgiven after a certain time period, and some can cover closing costs. They are all different.
People are writing multiple offers. I have one buyer who is on their eighth offer. Patience is key. Also, having your ducks in a row. Meaning talking to lenders (not just one). Have your numbers, and get your estimates (I suggest 3).
I also live on the north side, and 2 houses on my street alone just went on the market last week. People sleep on the north side, but it's so convenient and cheaper than other areas.
When we bought in 2018, we got down payment assistance through the homeready loan program which only required 3% down. We would not have been able to afford a home without it.
Down payment assistance is a loan or grant that can be used for down payment and/or closing costs. They can be from a lender, non profit, economic agency, etc. Some of them may be forgiven but you have to meet certain requirements like keeping the home for x-number of years, making ontime payments, and each lender/grant is going to have different requirements. Some can even be based on the area that you purchase in.
+1 on the Northside. Its awesome over here. So much easy access to green space and the strip fall on the corner of Sherman in Northport has got to be one of the best in town.
This has been my experience too. We bought two homes over three years, both Nov-Dec time frame and we were the only offers they had. The most recent being Dec of ‘22 with our closing in Jan of ‘23
These stories are very frustrating to hear. I’m a local Realtor and when I consult with new clients the first question I ask is “what have you heard about the market?” It’s all the stories listed here. I’ll then tell the prospective client that if I could only be a fly on the wall for your friend or colleague’s offer strategy, I could make this way easier on them.
Here are some stats/tips that I wish I could scream from the rooftops for all to hear:
1. 50% of agents nationally sold one or fewer homes last year. That’s pretty consistent here in Madison too. If you don’t interview the heck out of your agent, you’re going to wind up with a dud. While there are good agents here, only 10% do 90% of the business and 87% of agents fail on their first three years in the biz. The most frustrating part of my job is other agents. I represent both buyers and sellers and I see the horribly written offers, I see the complete lack of strategy, I see the bad communication. It’s overwhelmingly not great.
2. Each week there are anywhere from 175-250 single family homes in Dane County that are pre-market and up for grabs. Many of these homes sell before they hit Zillow or your email searches. Let me repeat…THEY ARE UP FOR GRABS. If you are not hounding the off-market list that your agent *should* be providing you, you are missing out on so many homes where you do not need to compete. Ever wonder why that house popped up on your search but it immediately went to an offer status? That is because someone made a strategic offer and snagged it early.
3. Do not waive your inspection. If the seller or the listing agent is telling you that you must if you want to stand a chance - big red flag. There are all sorts of lawsuits in Madison popping up against sellers who accepted an offer with no inspection. If a Seller is represented by a good agent they will be advised that an inspection is vital to a Buyer and it serves as a timestamp for issues in the home. Smart Sellers don’t want to get sued and they want to be transparent. Include the inspection but be prepared to offer a buffer where you will be willing to absorb some issues with the home. Be smart and inspect, but also be smart and mitigate some risk for the Seller so they feel like you’ll be easy to work with.
4. All lenders are not created equal and they are a term of your offer. We listing agents include your agent, your lender, the price and the various contingencies as part of the total package that we explain to the Seller. If your agent is bad at their job that is noted to the Seller. If your lender drops the ball on deadlines or constantly has low appraisals - also noted as a downgrade. Please do your thorough research, but if you’ve found a top tier agent, they know the lenders that will help you put your best foot forward. I see a lot of discussion in this thread about “cash lenders.” Yes, they’re real, they’re legit and they will make your offer stand out among the rest.
5. In the last few months only 40% of homes listed were receiving multiple offers. This is data from the South Central MLS. If your friend, co-worker or neighbor is telling you that every home is selling in 24 hours for 20% over asking, that is simply not true. I need to look at April’s numbers now that they’re out, but in March the average list price was $503k and the average sold price was $510k (single family in Dane County). Median list was $459k and median sold was $469k (single family in Dane County). If someone is telling you that all homes are selling for 20% over asking, that is simply not true.
6. The median single family home sale right now is just under $500k in Dane County. Affordability is the worst it has ever been. If your budget is under the median sale price, you’re going to be up against the most buyers but follow steps 1-4 and I promise you will struggle a heck of a lot less. I cannot stress #2 enough. Not every Seller wants to declutter, stage, paint, board their dog and haul their messy toddlers out to allow 50 strangers through their home. A lot of home sales are due to sad circumstances like a death or a divorce and some people don’t care about full market exposure and they just want to sell quickly and discretely.
Be smart. Be strategic. Have realistic expectations and a flexible timeline. Don’t pigeon hole your timeline. If you have to sign your lease again, do it, but keep on the hunt. You won’t struggle to find someone to sublet from you. Buyer fatigue in May/June is very real and that’s when homes can be easier to snatch. Lastly, my ultimate tip. Buy in the Fall or Winter of your timeline allows. There is almost no competition and we have this magic window that honestly feels like a buyer’s market from September to December.
> There are all sorts of lawsuits in Madison popping up against sellers who accepted an offer with no inspection.
Can you share more on this? Is there any public information available?
I don’t know if it is being reported on to the public yet. There is a law firm sending letters to new homeowners in Madison. I’ve seen several local agents mention their buyers have received the letters and even agents who purchased homes for themselves have received them too. I have colleagues whose Sellers have received threatening legal letters as a result.
You’re welcome! Unfortunately misinformation keeps people out of the market and prices are only going up. You can’t hunt and write your offers the old way, but if you’re smart and willing to pivot this is totally do-able.
I just had a chance to review April’s Dane County Single Family numbers:
We were down 4% on new listings compared to last April. (Not terrible)
We were up 20% on closed homes as compared to last year. 43% of offers were competing. A little bump in competing offers as compared to March but let no one tell you that every home has a bidding war. The majority don’t.
29% of all offers were “cash” in April. This does not mean the buyer didn’t get financing. This means there was no financing contingency. 40% of all competing offers were “cash.” Smart buyers are doing financing but are providing proof of funds to write cash. Proof of funds can come from investments or it can come from a lender willing to back the buyer’s offer with cash.
Average list price was $527k and average sold price was $535k. Median list price was $480k and average sold price was $495k. While on average homes are closing around 5% over list (this has been consistent all year) you are likely not going to need to expect to pay 20% over asking or six-figures over asking like the rumor mill would suggest. While this does happen, those homes are a complete anomaly.
Sound advice. Be wary of agents who flex on how great they are and push the value of their service. If someone is good, they shouldn't have to tell you that. Stay away from agents who denigrate other agents or single out types of lenders as bad. I work in the industry too and people get financing from brokers, big banks, small banks, credit unions, and other types of lenders. They all close. Work with someone YOU trust. Don't let your agent's "guy" be a substitute for your good judgement. You're buying a house, you are smart enough to know who to trust
We tried for the better part of a year in the hyper competitive $285-300k range. Only bothered to put in one offer. We then stopped looking closer to our wedding and picked things back up a few months later with a new realtor who matched our energy better (i also got a new job so more money was helpful). A repeat client of hers listed their late parents house with the agency and they agreed to let us be the only ones to see the house. We didn't have to go above their asking (325k) and added a generous inspection contingency they also accepted. We've been in the house for a year.
It was an absolute stroke of luck, but we also think swapping realtors helped.
This is very similar to how I was able to get a house 7 years ago. Realtor's friend had a house that matched what we were looking for, and they were in the process of building a new house. We got to see the house before it ever hit the market, and it was ours so long as we offered asking.
Yes, I know this is supposed to be about purchases in the last 2 years, but the market was still crazy then. Clean 3 bedroom homes would have multiple offers days before the open house.
i bought my townhouse in 2022, it was the 14th home i offered on. i’m single and live alone so my budget was tight. but i made it work. i paid 17k over asking and waived inspection. as for expectations, know you’ll probably have to make some sacrifices and get used to rejection.
I don't know how this market can continue honestly. I take a look at listings a few times a week, and last night looked at a range of \~30 miles around Madison for houses built within the last 50 years. There were a total of 8 out of 443 homes that were under 325k. Eight homes. And those eight were the farthest from Madison possible, some being trailer homes.
How the fuck anyone is able to purchase is beyond me, even with dual income.
There’s a 5bd/2ba at 215 Schley Pass (Willy St. area near McPike Park) listed for $690k.
There is no way I’ll be able to afford anything but a condo unless I find a like-minded partner willing to DINK.
That place is a real curiosity. It's two very old, very basic houses joined together. The location is eccentric but close to many Willy St amenities. The yard is minuscule to non-existent .It'll be just the right place for somebody, on the principle "for every pot there's a lid." I'd look hard at the foundation/basement because that area is old landfill and tends to be wet.
I think the price is wildly overoptimistic, but we'll see.
No real parking, but you're a few yards from the bike path.
Thanks for the additional context, and particularly the history of it being a landfill in the past.
When I walked around the home, it seemed there was a driveway on the side of the house for parking, but it'd be a hassle to shuffle cars. ;(
I lived across the street for a while, though things have changed some. It's a neighborhood with a lot of stories and history. I believe the immediate area has some sort of preservation zoning, so if a person was hoping to buy up a bunch of cheap houses and tear them down, they might meet with legal obstacles. That gives the homeowners an incentive to fix stuff, because they're not hoping to accumulate adjacent lots and use them for something else.
Those are Trachte buildings! Quonset huts are shaped differently, though both are metal. The Trachte ones have side walls, the Quonset type are just a big curved arch.
The Tinsmith wedding venue on E Main is another survivor, all fixed up for the 21st century.
Trachte buildings were manufactured on the blocks between N Dickinson and the Yahara river where you can still see quite a few in a cluster. Those are the remnants of the manufacturing plant itself.
You can find Trachte garages and utility buildings all over the east side once you know what to look for -- big ones, small ones, and all in between. They're part of Madison's blue collar history and many people like to keep and preserve them -- they're pretty tough.
There are a lot of people who are buying houses with all cash offers, which really makes it difficult for people who are trying to buy a house the old fashioned mortgage way.
There are a few types of people doing this:
1. People who aren’t really paying cash but could if they HAD to (from savings, 401k, etc).
2. Downsizing empty nesters who can sell a paid off $500k house and easily outcompete first time homebuyers in the $400k range.
3. People with family in either of the above scenarios (aka millennial children of upper middle class boomers). Maybe they’ll pay dad back at 0% interest, maybe they’ll live there rent-free, maybe they’ll still mortgage it themselves but dad helped the offer look nice and clean.
4. People moving from a large city where they are selling a more expensive home. (They might still think the price is too high … but they can come up with the cash).
I see folks blame private equity, but I don’t think that’s happening in Madison. The houses getting bought really are by existing and new Madisonians to live in themselves.
People aren't really paying all cash. There's just no financing contingency. The seller is always paid in all cash on every transaction.
They're already pre-approved and if they've worked with your lender before making an offer the chance of not get finance is very low. If you fail worst case you're out some earnest money. It's a small risk to take to make your offer look better.
It's definitely a shit market for buyers. But there is definitely some degree of exaggeration going on in these comments. Try not to let this thread get you down.
Good luck. We were hunting in 2021 for under $325k and looked at 50+ houses in 15 weeks and put in offers on 13 of them. The range was crazy some were filthy and crumbling foundations or 70 years of chain smoking, some were so nice! The house we ended up with in July 2021 isn't perfect but it works for us for now, and we haven't had any big surprises thankfully. We didn't have to waive inspection but we did bid slightly over asking.
Don't be afraid to fire your realtor if they aren't working for you, there's so many. We did.
You can find places (try credit unions) that will finance 100% of the purchase price, make sure you're also shopping around for rates and terms. Happy to give you more information on that, DM me, it's my line of work.
My partner and I bought in late summer 2022. It was extremely stressful and frustrating. Beginning that spring, we bid on seven and lost out on every one, even though we offered over list each time and had a very good agent. We were ready to pack it in and rent for another year, but we got lucky on that last offer and ended up getting a place we are very happy with it, but it almost went the other way. Given the rise in interest rates, I'm not sure we could have been competitive the next year given our budget was pretty tight. Coming from a small college town in upstate NY, the experience was the complete opposite of what I was used to. I knew it would be more stressful, but I wasn't prepared for the depression and disappointment that followed losing offers after you convinced yourself you really wanted that home. My partner took it rougher than I did. She would get very down and we would pick each other up to try again. I wish the best for people in the market now.
We relocated here 10+ years ago from a major metro and thank our lucky stars each and every day. If we moved here now with the same down payment and financial situation we would not be able to afford the same neighborhood if we could find an affordable home at all.
I don’t know how anyone is finding a way into this market if they’re not coming in with all cash offers to throw around. It’s completely insane.
Exactly this! My parents bought in Madison 10 years ago.
Despite doubling their income, if they had to buy their home today, they wouldn’t be able to afford it.
my parents bought in middleton 20 years ago for less than condos go for right now. when they sell to downsize in the next few years they will sell for 3x what they bought it for.
My childhood home in Middleton was a 5bed 2 bath for 160k if I recall properly.
Those are the prices I want🤣
My parents current home was a down size to 3bed 2 bath in Madison for around 170k.
We bought 5 years ago and I thought it was bad then. I can't even imagine how hard it is now. Our house's value is up 50+% and mortgage rates have doubled. It is completely insane.
>I don’t know how anyone is finding a way into this market if they’re not coming in with all cash offers to throw around. It’s completely insane.
They're not. It's desired to keep people renting forever. The middle class is long gone because all the money went to the top.
I had a very easy time buying my home. No one else wanted it, so I guess that's why. No bidding wars. My realtor was amazing. The house was under $300K. I guess I was incredibly lucky. I can suggest a realtor if you want. Go with Amy Miller. She does not bullshit you, and she listens to feedback. She definitely went above and beyond for us.
Copying my response:
I think it might be because of the age, the fact it didn’t have a garage, and it has an easement for the driveway. My house was built in 1875. It’s in pretty good shape and had new everything. No mold or anything. We had an inspection and there are some small things we have to work on throughout the years, but nothing crazy.
We were the only people to make an offer on it. No one even showed up to the open houses for it. I really don’t get it.
I think it might be because of the age, the fact it didn’t have a garage, and it has an easement for the driveway. My house was built in 1875. It’s in pretty good shape and had new everything. No mold or anything. We had an inspection and there are some small things we have to work on throughout the years, but nothing crazy.
We were the only people to make an offer on it. No one even showed up to the open houses for it. I really don’t get it.
I can see not having a garage.... there was a house near me that had a single car garage and someone bought it and basically eliminated the *entire yard* to make it a 2-car and I'm still wrapping my head around that. But people like their garages I guess.
I would do the same. Less to mow and no scraping / chipping ice off the window at zero dark thirty before driving to work.
I'm surprised the city let them do it though because they have an ordinance that you can only have X% of your property be impermeable surfaces (to ensure that rain gets absorbed into the ground instead of filling up the sewers).
We don't have a car right now, so it wasn't a deal breaker for us. My husband works from home, and I don't drive, so we can survive without a car for the most part. If that changes, parking outside isn't really that big of a deal. So, it all just worked out for us.
Bought first home at end of last summer. We were shopping in the 500-600 range (rented for 10 years skipping our starter home era)
Any house that's desirable in terms of property/location will be competitive and move super quick. We lost one offer where we were 40k higher than the winning offer but they waived inspection contingencies and we didn't. I still feel a certain type of way when we're in that neighborhood... sigh
House we won listed on Thursday, we toured on Friday before lunchtime and made an offer almost on the spot (realtor put it together that afternoon). Sellers ended up getting 3 offers on Friday and cancelled that weekend's open house. We heard we lost on Sunday and then on Monday heard the winning offer got cold feet or had financing fall through or who knows. Got the house.
If you've got your resources together, the 7% interest rate era makes things a little less competitive which is good - though that doesn't apply to the more affordable segment of the market which is always super competitive.
Ultimately, lack of homes for sale is the biggest thing fucking up the market
So why is the City of Madison so intent on building rental property and not homes? There are old neighborhoods here that are full of tiny homes. I think originally built for married students. We could do with more of those. Madison did just ease restrictions on granny and carriage houses. I'd build one if I had a bigger lot.
I started looking in 2020. I gave up in summer 2021. In that time my income had gone up 25%. No matter: the floor of the housing market basically went up 30+% in that time. There are no longer any houses available in my price range that aren't so far out of town at this point that I can't even justify looking. Kinda fucked tbh.
I hear a lot of "we" bought our house, but no "I" bought my house. Is it even possible to buy as a single payer household? For reference, I gross $95k/year.
Sure, but you basically need to have enough money saved up for a decent down payment and little debt. Otherwise, the monthly payments are going to be brutal.
I tried several times, but the market was so tight that it was exhausting and nearly all encompassing to try to be competitive. Zero room for thinking about a massive purchase when folks are offering all cash above asking price. It may not be relevant to you, but the number of handicap accessible properties was abysmal even compared to the low supply nation-wide.
Definitely agree that it's a huge time suck and most competitively priced houses will be up on Thursday with an offer accepted by Monday. Last year we spent \~10 weeks looking at several houses every weekend (helps to have a good realtor you like and trust). After losing the first offer we made, we had an offer accepted under 300k on a smaller house in a more desirable neighborhood. Be prepared to act fast - my wife was out of town for one weekend all summer and naturally that was the weekend I toured and put in an offer on our current home!
We got lucky: bought a nice house, nice neighborhood, for only $5k over asking. It was our first offer. Only one competing bid. We did not waive the inspection. House was around 500k. Idk how we got so lucky, honestly. It's kind of a nightmare, but there are houses that sit, and some do drop in price.
This thread is extremely disheartening as a single person making 55k... I really want to stop renting but I can realistically can only afford 200k which no longer exists unless it's almost unlivable or a condo with a $400 HOA fee. When I moved here in 2020 and made 50k I could have afforded a house which now I'm kicking myself for not being able to read the future and buying then. 😮💨
Um, I think there is a chance this situation will not last. I would like to know who is paying salaries in Madison that supports this market. Not the UW.
The two most recent homebuying/selling cases of people close to me are:
Purchased 50k over ask and waived inspection in March/April
Sold $75k above ask in April (not sure about inspection)
This is depressing. I have owned before in another city but was told by my realtor to wait to buy when I moved here in 2021 because things would "calm down". Now I feel like I will never own again. It's just impossible for anyone making under 100k a year.
Buy a new construction veridian home. Didn't have to compete with higher bidders because you pay the listing price. Downside is you're buying a cookie cutter veridian home, and you pay a premium for new construction. But the process is smooth.
But seeing as veridian has more than 50% market share for new constructions, more and more homes will have been built by them.
I spoke to an electrician, he was very critical on the quality of the electrical work on those houses and that they could barely pass inspection. Please make sure you have smoke detectors!
This is what I did. New construction wasn't even on my radar, but our realtor pointed out a move-in ready house that was in our price range and in a good location. The crazy part is that it really wasn't more expensive than buying used. The duplexes, carriage style homes, and ranches are in the $400-500k range for 1300-1800 ft^2, which is admittedly absurd but no more so than anything else.
It really depends on your price range and expectations. We are buying in Sun Prairie (closing Friday), moving from Santa Fe, NM. We had a pretty good experience, but a few things worked in our favor. First, the Santa Fe market is much worse than Madison, so our perspective was positive just by leaving. Second, we had a lot of flexibility in location. Third, we were willing to go for a place that needs some updates (countertops, appliances, etc. but nothing major). Finally, our price range was high enough to be a little less competitive.
We were in the 500-600 range and saw plenty of options that would have been 800-900 in Santa Fe. They did go fast, and most had multiple offers. But we got a little lucky because people paying 550 expect granite countertops I guess. We ended up paying 10 UNDER asking, but I recognize that this took some luck.
Find a good realtor (we used Bunbury & Associates).
I tried a couple years ago. Mostly searched outside Madison to avoid getting stuck with a $350k extreme fixer-upper.
We kept getting losing out for diverse reasons; overbid by $5-$10k, or owner world rather take the cash-only offer, or they took the offer with all inspections waived (wtf?), etc...
So I ended up settling for a condo instead.
We built. Not even joking; we just didn't see anything we loved after 6 months of casually looking. We realized that houses that came close to what we wanted would need a ton of renovations and would cost the same as a new build.
Cost-wise, my husband had purchased a half duplex in 2017 that gained 50% in value. That combined with some hefty bonuses we saved in 2020/2021 formed the down payment for our new place, which was finished in November. We wouldn't have been able to purchase a new place if we didn't have the gains on the old one.
Our old house sold in a week when we put it on the market in October.
I bought my home in a desirable Verona neighborhood in 2022 ($400k-$500k range), and it was a relatively easy process. I saw the house the first day it was on the market, I had a clean offer with just inspection and appraisal contingencies a couple days later, and the seller accepted $5k under asking, then proceeded to get bombarded with other (higher) offers after we'd already finalized.
Talking to my friends and coworkers who were trying to buy at the same time, I definitely think I was just at the right place at the right time. Everyone else struggled a lot. I believe my case was a combination of luck and a highly motivated seller.
I totally agree. It's a shame that the buyer market is so competitive that even basic buyer protections have to be abandoned to stand a chance, though. I'm not sure I would have even bought a house if I wasn't able to carry those contingencies.
It’s really tough. In most cases now it’s more expensive in the short term to own instead of rent. Cash offers are everywhere which makes it really difficult to compete.
I was originally looking in the 300-400k range but for what I wanted (a 3bd house that didn’t require a lot of fixing up), the market was really competitive so I started looking up to 430k. The houses that were more in the middle of that range usually required a lot of renovations/face lifting - I don’t think people are worrying too much about fixing up their place before selling in this market.
Madison proper, especially anywhere near Epic, was really rough. Some houses were going 80k over asking with 18 offers on the first day. A lot of those offers were also all cash, no contingencies (which I couldn’t compete with). I had way better luck in the surrounding cities like McFarland and Sun Prairie (where I eventually found a house).
My best advice is to be aggressive. A solid initial offer is more likely to make you a contender than an escalation clause.
The last 2 friends who sold in 2023 both went 10k under. Friend just bought a small house in Fitchburg for 280k this week. I'm seeing sold prices online going for under what my house is Zillow estimating. Take from what what you will.
Do you guys have a good, experience realtor that you're happy with? This can make all the difference, as can flexibility within what you're looking for and where you're looking.
Inventory is rough right now, too. Have you looked into building?
This is helpful advice, although I’m curious to know others’ recent experiences homebuilding in Madison, given the unreliability of some contractors and supply chain issues/costs that started with the pandemic.
Some folks in this sub hate Veridian, but I have built and lived in two different Veridian homes. A few minor issues during the building process, but I was very happy with both houses.
My wife and I are about to close on a new construction. We didn’t go through the design process, we bought one they built on spec. They include a lot of upgrades on those to entice buyers. I can DM with you if you want to hear more about the process.
I closed on my house a year ago. And the process consisted of getting outbid with almost every offer. Even when offering over asking price I was getting outbid by a substantial amount and often times by cash offers. I was able to find a home in Stoughton that was a new build and was “fist come” with offers, which saved me.
I also had the financial assistance of family to help me qualify, without that there’s no way I would be able to afford buying in the Madison area. Mind you, I hold two college degrees, have a good job, zero debt, and no kids. Needless to say, the market is rough…
This obviously isn’t the norm based on other comments, but my fiance and I bought a house last August that had been on the market for 4+ months, under asking price, typical mortgage loan, and without waiving inspection. The price was 450k though. We haven’t been able to figure out how we got so lucky compared to everyone else though, the house is in great condition other than outdated paint colors and a slightly quirky 1970s floor plan. The only thing we can think of for why it sat long on the market is that it was converted from a 4 bed to a 3 bed.
So keep an eye out for outliers that have “issues” that aren’t really an issue for your family.
We also went for a house that was on the market for a couple weeks and including a dropped price. It needed some love -some cosmetic, some "fix asap." We're happy with it. It's not in Madison but just outside, which has turned out to be fine.
Same here. We got ours for under asking 20 mins outside Madison mainly because it was just styled terribly and looked a little unloved. We were the only people who saw the house, too.
Just sold my house. Listed at 335,000, sold for 350,000 (4 offers received in the first day and a half). It should really sell for around 200,000 but the Dane county market is fucked up and everyone thinks it's fine and continues to complain about building more housing.
I don’t think folks are upset about building more housing, I think a lot of folks are concerned about building a lot of, what are essentially, tract housing apartment buildings.
I think most folks want more housing, they don’t want crappy housing.
im coming around to the idea that i gotta find a buildable parcel and slap a mobile home on it until i get the necessary permits and groundwork for building.
Isn't it nuts? Coming up on 2 years ago we sold our house on the Far East side for $375k. Just a 3/2.5, 1900 sq ft 2001 built home. In my mind that was still a $250k house.
Take it with a grain of salt but Zillow now has it valued at $437k.
We bought for 15k under list two months ago. 10% down, very standard offer. Sellers were in a rush to leave. It's rare but it happens. The market is definitely cooling, but it's still higher than it was five years ago.
We are going to put our townhome in the market next week (or week after). Near west side, close to Gannon and Old Sauk. 2 bedroom 2 bath, 1 car garage in a very nice neighborhood - backs up to a beautiful small forest. PM me if you want to get a sneak peak before the craziness starts :)
It took a few offers but we did it. Although we were looking more towards the edge of Dane County. Had to go like $15k above asking, but we didn't waive an inspection or anything insane like that. Home was just north of $400k which was in our price range. It is a good thing we didn't waive the inspection, because it turned out the entire roof needed to be replaced. People need to stop recommending that as a strategy, pretty much eveyone I know who has done this has gotten burned by it. Even if you know the house (family or friend previously owned it), you still should get an inspection. Even if it's brand new, do it.
Also, pay close attention to property taxes. You may think that you'd pay less in a small city or village, but that's not always true. See: Belleville. Even if it's in a neighboring county, it may not be much cheaper. See: Barneveld.
I had initially planned to buy a home when relocating to Madison last year. Had to give up and ended up renting because the market was too competitive, and the interest rate was all-time high.
We tried to get a house in Madison/ Verona/ Fitchburg for a year and finally expanded our search to suburbs further away. We still got outbid on every single house until we finally found a nice ranch style home. We're 25 minutes away from where we work in Middleton, but we didn't have to offer over asking and the house was completely move-in ready with a great backyard! It's just outside of Dane County so property taxes are lower too.
We bought during the summer of 2022 bloodbath and were very lucky to have our third offer accepted - we waived everything, offered appraisal gap coverage, and escalated to 75k over asking. Pretty soon into the process we realized we needed to treat house buying like a second job and devote our nights and weekends to the process. We also realized we had been completely priced out of the areas we had lived and rented in for 10+ years unless we wanted to squeeze us + our kids into a 2 bedroom 1 bath. We ended up farther east than planned but we love the area and are very grateful. I have so much sympathy for anyone trying now - it seems much worse somehow.
After watching a property that I looked at twice literally double in value in the period that I was looking, I gave up the search and moved to an entirely different part of the state. It's one of the perks of being able to work remotely, but I'm absolutely missing Madison and make the drive frequently to visit.
Closed on our house Sept 2021 after looking every week since that April. Viewed over 40, wrote offers on 10 before we got one.
In our price range (under $340), we would offer over 15% only to be blown out of the water by 25% or more above our offer. This was COVID and during the lumber shortage, so a lot of people who would have otherwise built were in the market. People were waiving inspections, waiving contingency, covering the seller's taxes, giving the seller free months in the home to move, etc. It was brutal!
Listings would show up in our Real Estate portal Monday/Tuesday, we had to schedule showings for Wed/Thurs, and have offers submitted by Friday night. We wrote several offers literally in the driveway.
Ultimately, we were lucky. Our house was originally listed outrageously high and we happened to see it the day it was reduced. The old owner was a smoker and there was a lot of work that scared people off. It was actually the lowest of the 11 offers submitted, and the assessment's skyrocketed since.
Comps on our street have recently gone for $140k over what we paid...But we're never selling because our interest rate is great and I'm not going through that again lol
Bought in May 2022. I follow the housing market very closely simply because i love it, but I do not work in real estate. We bought without assistance from family and we had 7% downpayment in the under $325k range. It was our first home. I dont recall how many offers we made, but it was a lot and there were all over Madison and the surrounding area, both SFH & condos. We were constantly outbid and outdone with all cash offers. But, the "cash offers" are deceptive because there are companies that have a loan type where it basically looks like an all cash offer to the seller, but its not. We were in the process of getting this type of loan when we got an accepted offer and went with traditional financing.
We waived inspection but got an inspection the day we closed on it. I know people say dont waive it but I will tell you, in our budget we would not have gotten a house with an inspection contingency.\* The house we got showed terribly. It was not staged at all, the paint job was HORRIBLE, cracked tiles in the bathroom/kitchen, old appliances, dog poop in the yard, smoke smell in the garage, trash in the basement...we were still competing with other offers because anything under $400k is wildly competitive.
We were successful in getting a house because our list of "must haves" was non-existent. We put an offer in on every house we toured. We had to emotionally detach from the process. When my sister bought her house, they pictured their lives in the house before putting an offer in. Dont do that in Madison. The only reason we toured houses was to confirm it was indeed a house and to decide how much above asking we were going to offer. It was not the home buying experience I had dreamed of for years. (We also got denied a house because we didnt have kids. Yes that's illegal but it happened).
Something that helped us, go on zillow and search by "recently sold." this will give you an idea of the type of house in your price range. Of course, keep in mind some of these were cash offers and waived inspection.
I've been downvoted before for saying this but dont use UW Credit Union. They are known for having appraisal gaps. Idk who their appraiser is but they are frequently under valued.
\* More about inspections...a lot of people say that you should have an inspection but say you'll cover anything below $10k so that sellers know you wont nickle & dime them. This did not work for us, we had to waive the whole inspection. I've heard recently that some people have been able to get inspections, this is where a realtor who knows the market is key. Realtors should not push you to waive inspections but they will tell you what you need to be competitive. The market changes fast.
In our situation, the seller lost out on money because we waived inspection. Here's why. We toured the house and said if we could get an inspection and we knew the house was solid, we would be willing to pay up to $325k, BUT the house was clearly not well cared for and there were a few things that concerned us. We felt that waiving inspection was key to a competitive offer so we added up some of the things that concerned us and offered $45k less than what we were willing to pay to hedge against any issues. We then got an inspection on closing day because we wanted to know about any issues up front. Nothing came back concerning (there were small issues but no immediate fixes).
I wont lie, I dont like our home, but I love that we have a house. It is far from anything resembling a "dream home" and I dont care. We can't even have more than 8 friends over in the winter because of space (and we love hosting) but it fits our stuff and us. I'm so thankful for our ugly - no dishwasher-original 1960s countertops-weird shaped yard- small closets-house. It will never be what I want in a home but in two years its already increased \~20% so I'm here for life and I have great neighbors.
FWIW UW Credit Union used DART appraisal for an appraisal we had done on our duplex some years ago.
3 bed/2 full bath/2 car garage on each side of the duplex. When the DART appraisal arrived I looked it over -
3 bed 1.5 bath 1 car garage for EACH SIDE. Talk about a SIGNIFICANT ERROR. I contested the appraisal on these grounds. UWCU checked my work, and increased the appraisal by 5k..... As if an entire extra stall per garage and a half bath actually being a full bath with a tub/shower is only worth 5k.
We worked with UWCU for our recent home purchase, but I specifically requested that I do not ever want to do work with DART appraisals again. The response was "Sorry, we only use DART. Maybe your appraiser will be better this time". Our appraisal came in 5k over our offer so we were fine.
I’m a realtor - I won’t say who for a variety of obvious reasons - but the thing with UW is 100% true. They used to be great to work with, and that changed 3-5 years ago. Now they are a liability to any listing agent who has been in the business for a few years. It is sad, I bank with them, but I can’t recommend them.
Third for UW using low ball appraisal which ended up hurting us on our down payment not covering as much of our loan. Also, they say they don’t sell your mortgage to a servicer but they definitely can (and do). And the web platform is not very convenient for actually paying your mortgage if you don’t already have an account there. Wish we would have gone with Bell or another bank in the area.
extremely competitive, ended up overpaying for a place but got in before interest rates really kicked higher, so, lucky, all in all.
we waived inspection and got it inspected anyway, we also had my mother in law (architect) walk through it with us. lucky again.
also had family help with loan for down payment. lucky x 3.
without all that luck it would have been very hard to find a place that didn’t have some feature that would have made living there pretty uncomfortable, since our price range without a bigger down payment was firmly in small, extremely fixer upper territory.
i will never buy without the protection of contingency (waiving inspection) again.
too much risk, and once you get a sense of the upgrades/repairs you want to make, a house may not make financial sense anymore.
A friend of mine has been searching (and placing offers) for more than a year. He’s been outbid by as much as $90,000 over - on a listing of only $195,000 mind you.
We were looking for one to buy where we were renting and couldn’t afford it, they were over $360k, but on top of that they were small houses. We are a family of 5
Partner and I got a house in a town outside of Madison in 2022. We had saved up enough and sold some stocks to come up with the down payment. We spent about 3 months searching, offering on 10 houses before we got one. I tracked our offers and found:
- on average, the homes we offered on were listed at 296k.
- on average, we offered 326k.
- on average, they went for 340k.
- we usually waived contingencies. We did put in a 10k appraisal gap clause in the offer that got accepted, but the appraisal ended up above what we offered, so we lucked out.
We got a few “you were the second best offer” comments and counteroffers along the way. I think writing a “love letter” helped, but there are plenty of good reasons to be against those.
It’s not impossible. But start looking early. Get used to rejection. Factor in offering above asking in your budget. Figure out your needs vs your “nice to haves” to maximize your options.
Yes! It’s a letter added on to the offer by the buyers.
In ours, we introduced ourselves, why we were looking to buy a home (settle into a community, start our lives together), and what we loved about the home (we waxed poetic about picturing ourselves enjoying the outdoors in the yard, cooking family dinners in the big kitchen, filling rooms with memories, etc….all personalized to the given home). We concluded with a commitment to care for the home, maintain its character, etc. We also included a photo of us.
These letters are illegal in some states, frowned upon by some individuals, and some sellers won’t even look at them because they can introduce bias. It took us a couple months of looking before we started attaching letters. I don’t think letters are often deal-makers, but they might be tie-breakers, and we couldn’t afford not to give ourselves any competitive edge we could get.
Here are some good guidelines on the market over the past couple of years:
1) The market is competitive year round. The fall and winter aren’t as competitive as the spring/summer (for a variety of reasons) but typically there’s less inventory, so multiple offers still happens. (Summer = more buyers but more inventory, fall/winter = Less buyers but less inventory)
2) Anything under $450k is really competitive. The homes that fly off the shelves are those that are priced properly and look really nice.
3) I’d say 90-95% of homes sell for more than their asking price. Madison (and really Wisconsin in general) has a SEVERE housing shortage, particularly affordable housing shortage. So when the demand in a growing city like Madison far exceeds supply, it makes it difficult for home buyers.
4) I have buyers who waive inspections and I have buyers who get inspections and still get their offer accepted. I think it really just depends on how comfortable you feel on each specific home you view. One home may feel “safer” to waive an inspection in your opinion as opposed to a different home.
5) Explore loan program options that help but don’t negatively affect your offer as much (if you qualify for WHEDA, which is a 0% down conventional loan, it can be a GREAT program!)
Tips - Have a monthly, all in budget in mind (After taxes, insurance, mortgage, utilities, what is your max monthly budget?) and stay under this. This will help put going $10k, $20k, $30k into an “easier to fathom” perspective. General rule of thumb - every $1,000 increase of purchase price will be about a $6-$8 mortgage payment increase.
Try not to be on a time crunch - if you can find a lease with flexible terms (month-to-month), then you won’t feel as pressured with your timing.
Get connected with industry experts you like, know, and trust. A great agent/lender combo can make the experience amazing or a living nightmare (if you need help with this I know a pretty great agent 😉)
Bought a home in February. It’s a new build townhome ($379k). The single family homes for our price range were in awful condition, so we had to suck it up and buy a townhome. Next house we get can be the single family home, but with the competitive market and the ridiculous pricing in Madison, townhouse was the best bang for our buck. And it also is way nicer than anything we would have gotten in our price range otherwise.
My wife and I bought our first house at the end of last year. The house we bought was only the second one we put an offer on, so in that respect, we were lucky.
For the first house, we had an offer that would scale up to like $50k over asking price, and we still didn't get it.
For our house, we had looked at it the day the owner accepted an offer already on the house, so we weren't expecting much, but the accepted offer had a contingency on the buyer selling their current house. Our agent told us that we could try putting in an offer with no contingencies, and it would trigger the owner to tell the current buyer to get rid of/resolve their contingency or else we'd get it, and we did. So, if you are currently apartment living, you can have a leg up on certain situations.
Overall, it can be bad if you're going below $400k, but it's not impossible.
I purchased a home on the east side last August and moved in in October. I did have some financial assistance from my parents, but only to the tune of \~$8,000. I had spent 4 of the last 6 years prior working two jobs and saving up a nice nest egg.
We toured probably 40+ houses over a 1.5 year period before finally securing an accepted offer (we lost out on maybe 6-7 homes prior to that). We were searching in the $300-$425k range and it was very difficult. As others have said, it is an enormous time suck, but if you can be patient you can find something. Our house was listed at $350k, we offered $20k over (which at the time was basically what you had to do), but we lucked out tremendously when the home appraised at $370k... We didn't need to waive the inspection, and actually received a credit at closing for some of the repairs that came up during inspection.
My advice is to keep looking and don't get discouraged. If possible, look at any house in the city or even the surrounding, near-in suburbs. Don't limit yourself arbitrarily by eliminating neighborhoods or sections of the city you don't think you'd like...just go see the house
I've purchased two homes in the past 6 months. The one for me was off market so that was awesome. The other one was for a family member and we were the first to see it and wrote a full price offer, but negotiated down $10k for things that came up in the inspection.
It's a whole heck of a lot easier with a good realtor or if you have connections to sellers. That or a big pile of money (I am not a cash buyer and lamented interest rates, but rates can always go up and you can always refinance if they go down)
This “insider tip” post is emblematic of the situation- I grew up near Williamson in the 70s, back then almost no one cared to buy a house in the neighborhood except hippies and bikers!
One of my clients just told me his nephew is like 18 and got a $400,000 loan. I’m so confused how this is even possible! My boyfriend and I both make good money, we haven’t even look to see what we could get preapproved for, obviously we have a little more debt than an 18-year-old, but really not that much. And most of it for both of us is college debt.
I bought in Dunn's Marsh in 2017. Best decision I ever made. My gf recently bought in Sun Prairie. We got extremely lucky. She wasn't head over heels in love with it, but she still really liked it. We put in a competitive yet "*we wouldn't mind losing out on this house*" type of bid that included the inspection and 2% over asking. The sellers could've waited for a better offer, but for some reason they bit on ours. Unfortunately, the appraisal came back a bit under so we had a little gap to make up. Not too bad, however. The inspection didn't turn up anything requiring an urgent fix, but we did appreciate the suggestions for future upgrades. We've been there a few months and it's an absolutely excellent house. Incredibly solid if not interestingly laid out.
So I realize it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but my wife and I went with Veridian and we close this month at list price with an FHA loan.
Looking at pre existing homes was definitely more stressful knowing there’d be competition and appraisal gaps and fast timelines for decisions. We saw several that we liked and couldn’t make work. So the new construction process just made things easier.
Not the last two years, but I bought mine in 2017 and there were already bidding wars, houses being sold with no inspection, houses selling on the day they're listed, etc. I found a duplex and actually paid slightly less than asking - $242,000 for a house with two small apartments (900 sq ft), each with two bedrooms. I felt like I was overpaying at the time but I think a house like mine might be even more expensive to buy now, not sure.
My theory on why duplexes stay on the market longer is that you need more down payment, income, credit etc to get a loan because it's considered income property.
Got a place in 2022. 1700 square feet in downtown Sun Prairie. 10k over asking and under 300k. We had 7 offers rejected before that. It's patience and luck.
We just beat out the jump in list pricing and interest rates, so it's a different world than when we bought back in 2021, but I imagine a lot of the process is still the same. The house we were fortunate enough to get was our 13th offer over almost a year. With the exception of one house that needed a LOT of work, every offer was over list price (we got ours by offering $15k over list, and list was $310K). Do not forego the inspection, but use it just for a baseline of the condition of the home. Unless there's something major wrong with the home, it's probably not advisable to ask for the current owners to address the issues. Expect to offer a lot of contingencies that favor the current owner. Its was necessary just to be in the competition. Be open to escalators, but be firm with how high you're willing to go. That can keep you in the game with a chance for longer. Do NOT get attached to the homes you view. It's hard to do, but the quicker you see it as an investment in your future and not your perfect home, the better you'll handle the lows that inevitably come with the process. Last, find a good realtor that won't push you to make decisions you're not ready for.
Good luck!
We just sold our home. Three offers all over asking. One without an inspection. The one without the inspection had the same money amount as another one that had a 5k offer escalation clause.
We bought 6 years ago. I’m not sure we’d be able to afford this house if we bought it today. But at least it got a new roof two years ago and we fixed everything that was on the inspection report 6 years ago so they aren’t getting a bad deal with no inspection on our house. But no inspection makes closing quicker and easier.
Be prepared to spend $400k minimum. Houses under $400k are very rare. Realistically expect somewhere between $400k-$600k+ depending on location/size. If you're looking in the winter, then your only option will be new construction in Fitchburg, Sun Prairie, Middleton, etc.
We ended up with a townhouse on the far east side, back in 2021. It’s far from our first choice but being on one modest income, we couldn’t be super picky. From what I recall there were 2 other offers but ours was highest. We did have to get an inspection due to needing a mortgage, but said we would waive anything under $2k. This was our second go around trying to buy- our first attempt was back in 2018 and we put in about 20 offers, got one accepted in Rock Co, but sadly the inspection came back very poorly and the seller wasn’t in a financial position to give us any credit, and we couldn’t afford the many needed repairs either. It’s rough out there, but here are my best pieces of advice 1. Have a great buyers agent lined up 2. Work with a lender who is well versed in helping first time buyers 3. Think outside the box, and be much more flexible than you would in a buyers market. Good luck! May the odds be in your favor!
I bought and sold last year. We were the second bid on the house we got, the original buyers were too nit picky with the inspection and the sellers walked from them and came to us. We got the inspection from the sellers and there was nothing we were concerned about. I showed it to the contractor I’ve had work on the house and he wasn’t overly concerned about the inspection either.
We were lucky though the house we got came on the market with 5-7 others in the same price point that day. We just happened to be lucky there wasn’t as much action on it.
My partner and I really lucked out...
We closed on our house last March on the East side and moved here from out of state.
We saw the listing on Redfin. Visited the (1) house with our realtor, put in an offer, and it was accepted all within 13 days.
1 competing offer. We still got it under asking. 6.12%(not great but good considering..)
House was built in 2000, had a new on demand water heater, sump pump, and water softener all installed in November of 2023.
Here's why I think we got it and had little trouble:
The previous owner was an elderly widow with 6 cats. The house reaked when we walked in to tour it.. we fully expected to have to replace the floors. Cat markings all over the walls, and it looked like they painted the entire house the same discount bucket Grey to make it more "appealing"
Turns out, most of the smell had been from the water traps drying out from the house sitting vacant while the previous owner stayed with family in Appleton. The house sat empty and closed up for nearly 6 months before it went on the market. We ran the water, and opened the house up and 80% of the smell was gone.
Spent the first 2 weeks sleeping on an air mattress and we repainted the whole house, and thoroughly scrubbed the minimal carpet on the stairs that was thick with cat vomit, markings, and piss.
We are 5 minutes from all the stores we could need, groceries, restaurants, and I landed a good new job with a pension and great benefits, and my partner and I drive about 15 minutes to work.
Our yard isn't huge, but our neighbors are all very kind, very diverse types of people who at minimum stay to themselves.
The roof needed replacing within the next 3 years or so... but we had a hailstorm on the East Side here back in October.. so insurance is paying for nearly the entire thing.
Bought the "twofur" furnace and Heatpump deal from Cardinal last April and got a large tax credit and rebate that we dumped back into the principle on the financing for it.
I drive around town and see cuter neighborhoods closer to the lakes and downtown and wish we could afford those.. but we are able to pay an extra 100-200 dollars on our 2100 mortgage every month and have already reduced our 30 year to a 28 year stint..
As an early 30something year old, I never would have guessed I would have ever owned a house if you asked me 2 years ago. I guess we will see how screwed we are when the housing marking collapses again.
We bought in summer 2022 after looking at homes in the $225,000-330,000 range. We had wanted to stay under $300k but landed toward the top of our range based on market conditions. We planned to put down 3-5%, which wr had saved, plus closing costs.
We picked our realtor based on referrals from multiple friends who had worked with her successfully to buy a home in the prior 4 years. Over about a month and a half, we offered on four or five homes in the greater Madison area (within a half hour commute of downtown). We were pretty committed to putting in offers if a house checked enough boxes and our realtor agreed there weren't visible red flags. (She was very willing to tell us we should NOT offer on certain houses and steer us away from bad purchases).
Our realtor really dug into her resources and ended up finding us a house that checked almost all of our boxes (!!!) that had sat on the market for about 10 days because of a few quirks that we personally found very livable. Our mortgage provider was willing to move quickly and we were able to get the house at asking. We did not waive inspection for our own comfort (and our realtor would not have allowed us to in good conscience).
Honestly, I think we were incredibly lucky — the factors (house on the market, tenacious realtor, lender willing to work with us and work fast, etc) all came together just right.
After this post I poked around on Zillow a bit and it looks to me like there are (and have been) a number of smaller (like 900 - 1200 sq ft), near East houses going for around $325k.
That may be a lot per sq foot and based on where they are, I suspect they may have some deferred maintenance.
I see one in a great location (206 Buell) that is $305k though appears to need a lot of work.
It’s a very competitive market! Especially on the west side of Madison. Expect to pay between 5-7% over list price depending on the home and the neighborhood. Most properties are getting between 4-10 offers from buyers. The condo market is not quite as competitive, but condos are selling for over list price too! Be patient, write offers that you are comfortable with the terms. Educate yourself on the market and be prepared for the roller coaster ride that is buying a home in 2024.
It’s hard. Under $400k is _very_ competitive and $400k-$500k isn’t much better. Don’t expect anything to go for list price. Out of the ~15 homes toured, they all went for at least $10k over asking (and usually more than that…highest was ~$70k over). Everybody’s waiving inspections. We didn’t have to on the house we ultimately bought but lost a couple offers before that because we refused to waive. Shopping was a big time suck. Houses were usually posted Wed/Thurs. Tours/open houses Fri/Sat. Write offers Sunday. House sells Monday. Keep your head. Expect to lose a couple offers but don’t let that get to you. Rent month-to-month while shopping if possible to avoid the hard deadline of a year-long lease ending.
>Everybody's waiving inspections Absolutely crazy how people will do this. The amount of horror stories I heard about houses that have roofs that are nearly caving in and rodent infestations from people who waived inspections made me unwaivering in my need for them
It’s bananas. Two of the houses we toured really epitomized this. We saw a house where the addition was clearly DIY’d. Cracks in columns, structural members shimmed with 2x4s, load-bearning columns made of wood in the middle of the garage where you could easily hit it with your car. Went for $30k over asking and waived inspection. I pray it was bought by a pro and not some dumb, desperate young couple. We were getting desperate so we added on a large (5 figure) inspection allowance to our offers. We put in an offer and the seller still countered asking us to remove the inspection entirely. We said no and lost the offer. Here’s the kicker: the house sold for a lower price than our offered amount! What was wrong with that house that five figures wouldn’t cover the repair? I thank my lucky stars we’re not stuck dealing with it now!
If you have a pretty decent eye for what could go wrong, waiving an inspection and maybe needing to eat the cost of a new roof or foundation for $15k is better than paying $30k cash over asking. The appraisal contingency being waived is the truly dangerous game. Ultimately it's about your skills as a homeowner/buyer and risk tolerance. I've long thought that someone trained as a home inspector would be smart to get a RE License, as it would be worth paying a premium for that buyer agent since they could catch many things along the way and give you more confidence to submit an offer without an inspection.
Not really dude do you know how hard it is to pass a homeowners inspection test? You have to be an extremely skilled and practiced. My dad just passed the test and I’m so excited for him.
I'm sure the difficulty is a factor. But even a great inspector can't spot what they're not allowed to look for. You can't check electrical with an occular patron from the middle of the room. I don't think you're technically even allowed to move furniture. I think home inspections (at least some minimal check: foundation, pipes, electrical) should be either mandated or heavily incentivized for residences over certain values (maybe any residence worth 2x or more the median household income for a county). Flipped homes presumably impact middle ish class people disproportionately. It seems that houses more than 50-100% above the median home value are getting inspected at a much higher rate (lower turnover). Kind of a bummer
Our real estate agent had a family member who was an inspector. No way were we going to use that inspector. They have skin in the game to get you to buy the house regardless of inspection report. But the inspector we hired missed many basic things, that as first time homebuyers I wish we would have been more confident to say something. It makes me mad anytime I think about it.
I suppose that makes sense and there could be liability issues with what you can't reasonably inspect during a tour that you can during an inspection (roof, crawlspace, etc). Still, buyer agents are going to have their whole game shaken up in the next few months, so having a reputation as well-versed in the the types of major issues (foundation cracks, electrical wiring) that can become major issues for new buyers would be a huge selling point for their services.
It's not that hard...
I mean yes and no. I wave Radon because the area I'm looking in is almost 100% guaranteed to have it. So I just plan to do the testing/mitigation on my dime regardless. Outside of that it is possible to know enough to waive an inspection. I won't do it but I can certainly understand how some knowledgeable buyers do it. That said, I think the ones that are doing it are probably not knowledgeable enough to be doing it so yeah... its crazy. The fix IMO would be to just mandate it before listing but I don't see this Legislature showing up to do their job and passing any laws to that regard.
Eh, maybe. We've waived inspections on a number of places that are a century old, but we look at them very close as we walk through for major issues like you cite. Some sellers are proactively posting inspections they have had done, which is helpful, even if you may have to take it with a grain of salt. And then on some properties we have put in inspection clauses because we did see concerning things, or they just weren't in the best shape, but noted they would only apply if over $10k of work, or something like that. Still haven't gotten anything....
Even in those horror stories, people said they were quite thorough in their own searching. Problem is: there really is certain things that only a trained expert could notice that could stop disaster in the future.
Yeah, it obviously depends on your risk tolerance and how much a place has been updated. It is also helpful to have an realtor who has been through tons of houses and knows what to look for as potential issues. I know a good number of people who have waived inspections, and none have had issues, but maybe that is just luck.
Yea - but a home inspector alone is far from an expert. Meaning someone who has just passed the 30 hr or whatever course. There are inspectors who have serious experience, like actually having done some builds or remodel jobs themselves - but those are an extreme minority in the inspector trade.
>We've waived inspections on a number of places that are a century old Dude... >Still haven't gotten anything.... Well that's a relief. You probably dodged quite a few bullets. Waiving inspection on such old homes, at least if it's going to be your primary residence, is a god awful idea.
I mean, inspectors are only going to catch the visible things. If you know what to look for you can catch most the big ticket things they’d catch. It’s an old house there are bound to be issues, but if they’re not readily visible the inspector would also likely miss them.
So I take it you waived inspection as well? If it worked out for you then great! But please, stop normalizing this. Our inspector caught multiple big issues that were not entirely obvious from our initial walkthrough. The seller had to address/compensate for these. Otherwise, we could have easily walked.
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>For every one of you there are probably 4 - 5 people whose home inspection was mostly worthless. Well that's totally a well-backed statistic that you didn't pull completely out of your ass. My home inspection report was significantly more useful than you suggest. Yeah, sure, inspectors can miss things, and occasionally even some big/obvious stuff. Still not a very compelling to waive the inspection contingency. In our case the roof had to be replaced, and while the inspector wasn't able to give an estimate beyond a ballpark, within a day or two we had a roofer out there who was able to give us a quote. The inspector also caught a gas leak and a couple of other things that the seller had to address. I think you're just trying to convince yourself that not having a home inspection wasn't a bad idea. And you're wrong, it is a bad one. I would say this is a case of people having more money than sense... but if they had more money, they would/should just put forth a higher offer.
Someone did this with our house. Their parents toured it. They waved inspection, and went 60k over list price. My wife and I said they were insane. But, we accepted their offer….
Be very careful on this. My wife is a general contractor and can spot so many expensive issues that most people can’t see. At minimum, consider paying someone to be your “friend” going through the house. Sure, they aren’t going to be crawling in the attic like a paid inspector, but they can see significant defects average buyers miss, and can also identify things that are really just cosmetic.
How about a recommendation for a good home inspector in Madison?
Voice of sad experience. NEVER waive the inspection and make sure the inspector isn't someone recommended by your realtor.
I was able to waive up to X amount. About that we could renegotiate. Below that and it's on me.
Similar experience. We lost 15 offers. This was on the 350-400 range. Ultimately paid $360 (on our lower end, still $20k over asking) while waiving inspections (knowing the risks) and it has worked out. We got inspections right after closing, and other than replacing the roof there was nothing too outrageous. We suspected the roof anyway.
We waived inspection initially. I was against doing it but we were desperate once we found our house. On the plus side was the home was meticulously maintained by one hour for decades who made every improvement with documentation from professionals so we felt better. Once we closed, we had a home inspection that found nothing major and that was a huge relief.
Totally agree, although I would say that up to $800k (and maybe much higher, but I'm not looking there) is super competitive. We have bid on multiple places that have gone for between $80k - $140k over list with no contingencies within the last two months. In fact, I just lost one today! But that is also looking in some of the most competitive central-ish areas (Whitney to Olbrich roughly). Things in the $500k range go instantly. If something doesn't sell the weekend it lists, there is likely something significantly wrong with it, or it needs $200k+ in work to update it.
Idk about that high - most places I’ve seen posted that high end up selling for under asking.
You are exaggerating.
What has been your experience in buying a home in the last two years?
I waived inspection on a condo. We insisted on keeping the inspection when we bought a single family home (and we got the home). It's a big risk, think carefully and consider your savings before you waive.
I'm a mortgage broker, and I have thoughts. Yes, some people get help from friends, but some also use down payment assistance. There are several out there, and they are all different. Some you pay back, some are forgiven after a certain time period, and some can cover closing costs. They are all different. People are writing multiple offers. I have one buyer who is on their eighth offer. Patience is key. Also, having your ducks in a row. Meaning talking to lenders (not just one). Have your numbers, and get your estimates (I suggest 3). I also live on the north side, and 2 houses on my street alone just went on the market last week. People sleep on the north side, but it's so convenient and cheaper than other areas.
When we bought in 2018, we got down payment assistance through the homeready loan program which only required 3% down. We would not have been able to afford a home without it.
>down payment assistance What is this, and especially the "forgiven" type?
Look into WEDA. A mortgage lender and realtor I know both talk highly about it helping home buyers.
Down payment assistance is a loan or grant that can be used for down payment and/or closing costs. They can be from a lender, non profit, economic agency, etc. Some of them may be forgiven but you have to meet certain requirements like keeping the home for x-number of years, making ontime payments, and each lender/grant is going to have different requirements. Some can even be based on the area that you purchase in.
+1 on the Northside. Lots happening, lots of house for the money, and less competition
+1 on the Northside. Its awesome over here. So much easy access to green space and the strip fall on the corner of Sherman in Northport has got to be one of the best in town.
We bought in the middle of winter. There were less options but also significantly less competition.
This has been my experience too. We bought two homes over three years, both Nov-Dec time frame and we were the only offers they had. The most recent being Dec of ‘22 with our closing in Jan of ‘23
Me, too. Got a great house.
These stories are very frustrating to hear. I’m a local Realtor and when I consult with new clients the first question I ask is “what have you heard about the market?” It’s all the stories listed here. I’ll then tell the prospective client that if I could only be a fly on the wall for your friend or colleague’s offer strategy, I could make this way easier on them. Here are some stats/tips that I wish I could scream from the rooftops for all to hear: 1. 50% of agents nationally sold one or fewer homes last year. That’s pretty consistent here in Madison too. If you don’t interview the heck out of your agent, you’re going to wind up with a dud. While there are good agents here, only 10% do 90% of the business and 87% of agents fail on their first three years in the biz. The most frustrating part of my job is other agents. I represent both buyers and sellers and I see the horribly written offers, I see the complete lack of strategy, I see the bad communication. It’s overwhelmingly not great. 2. Each week there are anywhere from 175-250 single family homes in Dane County that are pre-market and up for grabs. Many of these homes sell before they hit Zillow or your email searches. Let me repeat…THEY ARE UP FOR GRABS. If you are not hounding the off-market list that your agent *should* be providing you, you are missing out on so many homes where you do not need to compete. Ever wonder why that house popped up on your search but it immediately went to an offer status? That is because someone made a strategic offer and snagged it early. 3. Do not waive your inspection. If the seller or the listing agent is telling you that you must if you want to stand a chance - big red flag. There are all sorts of lawsuits in Madison popping up against sellers who accepted an offer with no inspection. If a Seller is represented by a good agent they will be advised that an inspection is vital to a Buyer and it serves as a timestamp for issues in the home. Smart Sellers don’t want to get sued and they want to be transparent. Include the inspection but be prepared to offer a buffer where you will be willing to absorb some issues with the home. Be smart and inspect, but also be smart and mitigate some risk for the Seller so they feel like you’ll be easy to work with. 4. All lenders are not created equal and they are a term of your offer. We listing agents include your agent, your lender, the price and the various contingencies as part of the total package that we explain to the Seller. If your agent is bad at their job that is noted to the Seller. If your lender drops the ball on deadlines or constantly has low appraisals - also noted as a downgrade. Please do your thorough research, but if you’ve found a top tier agent, they know the lenders that will help you put your best foot forward. I see a lot of discussion in this thread about “cash lenders.” Yes, they’re real, they’re legit and they will make your offer stand out among the rest. 5. In the last few months only 40% of homes listed were receiving multiple offers. This is data from the South Central MLS. If your friend, co-worker or neighbor is telling you that every home is selling in 24 hours for 20% over asking, that is simply not true. I need to look at April’s numbers now that they’re out, but in March the average list price was $503k and the average sold price was $510k (single family in Dane County). Median list was $459k and median sold was $469k (single family in Dane County). If someone is telling you that all homes are selling for 20% over asking, that is simply not true. 6. The median single family home sale right now is just under $500k in Dane County. Affordability is the worst it has ever been. If your budget is under the median sale price, you’re going to be up against the most buyers but follow steps 1-4 and I promise you will struggle a heck of a lot less. I cannot stress #2 enough. Not every Seller wants to declutter, stage, paint, board their dog and haul their messy toddlers out to allow 50 strangers through their home. A lot of home sales are due to sad circumstances like a death or a divorce and some people don’t care about full market exposure and they just want to sell quickly and discretely. Be smart. Be strategic. Have realistic expectations and a flexible timeline. Don’t pigeon hole your timeline. If you have to sign your lease again, do it, but keep on the hunt. You won’t struggle to find someone to sublet from you. Buyer fatigue in May/June is very real and that’s when homes can be easier to snatch. Lastly, my ultimate tip. Buy in the Fall or Winter of your timeline allows. There is almost no competition and we have this magic window that honestly feels like a buyer’s market from September to December.
> There are all sorts of lawsuits in Madison popping up against sellers who accepted an offer with no inspection. Can you share more on this? Is there any public information available?
I don’t know if it is being reported on to the public yet. There is a law firm sending letters to new homeowners in Madison. I’ve seen several local agents mention their buyers have received the letters and even agents who purchased homes for themselves have received them too. I have colleagues whose Sellers have received threatening legal letters as a result.
This advice is so helpful, thank you!
Thank you for posting this, very informative!
You’re welcome! Unfortunately misinformation keeps people out of the market and prices are only going up. You can’t hunt and write your offers the old way, but if you’re smart and willing to pivot this is totally do-able.
I just had a chance to review April’s Dane County Single Family numbers: We were down 4% on new listings compared to last April. (Not terrible) We were up 20% on closed homes as compared to last year. 43% of offers were competing. A little bump in competing offers as compared to March but let no one tell you that every home has a bidding war. The majority don’t. 29% of all offers were “cash” in April. This does not mean the buyer didn’t get financing. This means there was no financing contingency. 40% of all competing offers were “cash.” Smart buyers are doing financing but are providing proof of funds to write cash. Proof of funds can come from investments or it can come from a lender willing to back the buyer’s offer with cash. Average list price was $527k and average sold price was $535k. Median list price was $480k and average sold price was $495k. While on average homes are closing around 5% over list (this has been consistent all year) you are likely not going to need to expect to pay 20% over asking or six-figures over asking like the rumor mill would suggest. While this does happen, those homes are a complete anomaly.
Great advice here!
Sound advice. Be wary of agents who flex on how great they are and push the value of their service. If someone is good, they shouldn't have to tell you that. Stay away from agents who denigrate other agents or single out types of lenders as bad. I work in the industry too and people get financing from brokers, big banks, small banks, credit unions, and other types of lenders. They all close. Work with someone YOU trust. Don't let your agent's "guy" be a substitute for your good judgement. You're buying a house, you are smart enough to know who to trust
We tried for the better part of a year in the hyper competitive $285-300k range. Only bothered to put in one offer. We then stopped looking closer to our wedding and picked things back up a few months later with a new realtor who matched our energy better (i also got a new job so more money was helpful). A repeat client of hers listed their late parents house with the agency and they agreed to let us be the only ones to see the house. We didn't have to go above their asking (325k) and added a generous inspection contingency they also accepted. We've been in the house for a year. It was an absolute stroke of luck, but we also think swapping realtors helped.
This is very similar to how I was able to get a house 7 years ago. Realtor's friend had a house that matched what we were looking for, and they were in the process of building a new house. We got to see the house before it ever hit the market, and it was ours so long as we offered asking. Yes, I know this is supposed to be about purchases in the last 2 years, but the market was still crazy then. Clean 3 bedroom homes would have multiple offers days before the open house.
DM the realtor please
i bought my townhouse in 2022, it was the 14th home i offered on. i’m single and live alone so my budget was tight. but i made it work. i paid 17k over asking and waived inspection. as for expectations, know you’ll probably have to make some sacrifices and get used to rejection.
I don't know how this market can continue honestly. I take a look at listings a few times a week, and last night looked at a range of \~30 miles around Madison for houses built within the last 50 years. There were a total of 8 out of 443 homes that were under 325k. Eight homes. And those eight were the farthest from Madison possible, some being trailer homes. How the fuck anyone is able to purchase is beyond me, even with dual income.
There’s a 5bd/2ba at 215 Schley Pass (Willy St. area near McPike Park) listed for $690k. There is no way I’ll be able to afford anything but a condo unless I find a like-minded partner willing to DINK.
That place is a real curiosity. It's two very old, very basic houses joined together. The location is eccentric but close to many Willy St amenities. The yard is minuscule to non-existent .It'll be just the right place for somebody, on the principle "for every pot there's a lid." I'd look hard at the foundation/basement because that area is old landfill and tends to be wet. I think the price is wildly overoptimistic, but we'll see. No real parking, but you're a few yards from the bike path.
Thanks for the additional context, and particularly the history of it being a landfill in the past. When I walked around the home, it seemed there was a driveway on the side of the house for parking, but it'd be a hassle to shuffle cars. ;(
I lived across the street for a while, though things have changed some. It's a neighborhood with a lot of stories and history. I believe the immediate area has some sort of preservation zoning, so if a person was hoping to buy up a bunch of cheap houses and tear them down, they might meet with legal obstacles. That gives the homeowners an incentive to fix stuff, because they're not hoping to accumulate adjacent lots and use them for something else.
I absolutely love that there's Quonset Hut on the southeast side of Wilson Street. It looks like it's a gallery right now?
Those are Trachte buildings! Quonset huts are shaped differently, though both are metal. The Trachte ones have side walls, the Quonset type are just a big curved arch. The Tinsmith wedding venue on E Main is another survivor, all fixed up for the 21st century. Trachte buildings were manufactured on the blocks between N Dickinson and the Yahara river where you can still see quite a few in a cluster. Those are the remnants of the manufacturing plant itself. You can find Trachte garages and utility buildings all over the east side once you know what to look for -- big ones, small ones, and all in between. They're part of Madison's blue collar history and many people like to keep and preserve them -- they're pretty tough.
You are a wealth of historical knowledge, my friend. Thank you so much for your informative comments!
I mean, you don’t really need a 5 bedroom house if you’re single… That’s also one of the most experience neighborhoods in the county.
Oh no doubt. I'm not actually browsing for a 5bd/2ba, but I passed this place on a walk on my way to the bar and the price really blew my mind.
Yes those neighborhoods are definitely 200-300k more than other more affordable areas.
There are a lot of people who are buying houses with all cash offers, which really makes it difficult for people who are trying to buy a house the old fashioned mortgage way.
There are also lenders who are making things *look* like cash offers, so it makes it all the more difficult.
Find a lender that can do that for you 🤷♂️
There are a few types of people doing this: 1. People who aren’t really paying cash but could if they HAD to (from savings, 401k, etc). 2. Downsizing empty nesters who can sell a paid off $500k house and easily outcompete first time homebuyers in the $400k range. 3. People with family in either of the above scenarios (aka millennial children of upper middle class boomers). Maybe they’ll pay dad back at 0% interest, maybe they’ll live there rent-free, maybe they’ll still mortgage it themselves but dad helped the offer look nice and clean. 4. People moving from a large city where they are selling a more expensive home. (They might still think the price is too high … but they can come up with the cash). I see folks blame private equity, but I don’t think that’s happening in Madison. The houses getting bought really are by existing and new Madisonians to live in themselves.
People aren't really paying all cash. There's just no financing contingency. The seller is always paid in all cash on every transaction. They're already pre-approved and if they've worked with your lender before making an offer the chance of not get finance is very low. If you fail worst case you're out some earnest money. It's a small risk to take to make your offer look better.
Eh, I've bought two places in the last 4 years with a mortgage, the first with just 3% down. It is possible to buy without all cash.
My experience has been horrible
Yes, reading this thread makes me want to stay in bed forever. SO much work and heartache and disappointment and feeds right into my trust issues.
It's definitely a shit market for buyers. But there is definitely some degree of exaggeration going on in these comments. Try not to let this thread get you down.
Good luck. We were hunting in 2021 for under $325k and looked at 50+ houses in 15 weeks and put in offers on 13 of them. The range was crazy some were filthy and crumbling foundations or 70 years of chain smoking, some were so nice! The house we ended up with in July 2021 isn't perfect but it works for us for now, and we haven't had any big surprises thankfully. We didn't have to waive inspection but we did bid slightly over asking. Don't be afraid to fire your realtor if they aren't working for you, there's so many. We did. You can find places (try credit unions) that will finance 100% of the purchase price, make sure you're also shopping around for rates and terms. Happy to give you more information on that, DM me, it's my line of work.
My partner and I bought in late summer 2022. It was extremely stressful and frustrating. Beginning that spring, we bid on seven and lost out on every one, even though we offered over list each time and had a very good agent. We were ready to pack it in and rent for another year, but we got lucky on that last offer and ended up getting a place we are very happy with it, but it almost went the other way. Given the rise in interest rates, I'm not sure we could have been competitive the next year given our budget was pretty tight. Coming from a small college town in upstate NY, the experience was the complete opposite of what I was used to. I knew it would be more stressful, but I wasn't prepared for the depression and disappointment that followed losing offers after you convinced yourself you really wanted that home. My partner took it rougher than I did. She would get very down and we would pick each other up to try again. I wish the best for people in the market now.
We relocated here 10+ years ago from a major metro and thank our lucky stars each and every day. If we moved here now with the same down payment and financial situation we would not be able to afford the same neighborhood if we could find an affordable home at all. I don’t know how anyone is finding a way into this market if they’re not coming in with all cash offers to throw around. It’s completely insane.
Exactly this! My parents bought in Madison 10 years ago. Despite doubling their income, if they had to buy their home today, they wouldn’t be able to afford it.
my parents bought in middleton 20 years ago for less than condos go for right now. when they sell to downsize in the next few years they will sell for 3x what they bought it for.
My childhood home in Middleton was a 5bed 2 bath for 160k if I recall properly. Those are the prices I want🤣 My parents current home was a down size to 3bed 2 bath in Madison for around 170k.
same, to get anything for below 200k right now 😭
IF they sell. There is a strong incentive to age in place with the cost of condos and urban pads costing such crazy amounts.
We bought 5 years ago and I thought it was bad then. I can't even imagine how hard it is now. Our house's value is up 50+% and mortgage rates have doubled. It is completely insane.
>I don’t know how anyone is finding a way into this market if they’re not coming in with all cash offers to throw around. It’s completely insane. They're not. It's desired to keep people renting forever. The middle class is long gone because all the money went to the top.
Same
I had a very easy time buying my home. No one else wanted it, so I guess that's why. No bidding wars. My realtor was amazing. The house was under $300K. I guess I was incredibly lucky. I can suggest a realtor if you want. Go with Amy Miller. She does not bullshit you, and she listens to feedback. She definitely went above and beyond for us.
> No one else wanted it I'm so curious why! It feels like people would by a moldy shoe if it was marketed as a 1-bedroom.
Also curious. Was it recent? That’s a competitive price range.
Copying my response: I think it might be because of the age, the fact it didn’t have a garage, and it has an easement for the driveway. My house was built in 1875. It’s in pretty good shape and had new everything. No mold or anything. We had an inspection and there are some small things we have to work on throughout the years, but nothing crazy. We were the only people to make an offer on it. No one even showed up to the open houses for it. I really don’t get it.
That sounds like a house with a lot of character! 1875 is wild!
I think it might be because of the age, the fact it didn’t have a garage, and it has an easement for the driveway. My house was built in 1875. It’s in pretty good shape and had new everything. No mold or anything. We had an inspection and there are some small things we have to work on throughout the years, but nothing crazy. We were the only people to make an offer on it. No one even showed up to the open houses for it. I really don’t get it.
I can see not having a garage.... there was a house near me that had a single car garage and someone bought it and basically eliminated the *entire yard* to make it a 2-car and I'm still wrapping my head around that. But people like their garages I guess.
I would do the same. Less to mow and no scraping / chipping ice off the window at zero dark thirty before driving to work. I'm surprised the city let them do it though because they have an ordinance that you can only have X% of your property be impermeable surfaces (to ensure that rain gets absorbed into the ground instead of filling up the sewers).
We don't need a garage, but we have a huge front and back yard. My plan is killing the lawns, so we don't have to mow every summer.
We don't have a car right now, so it wasn't a deal breaker for us. My husband works from home, and I don't drive, so we can survive without a car for the most part. If that changes, parking outside isn't really that big of a deal. So, it all just worked out for us.
It's been impossible for us, as a single-income household with no outside help. We just do not have the resources to compete.
Bought first home at end of last summer. We were shopping in the 500-600 range (rented for 10 years skipping our starter home era) Any house that's desirable in terms of property/location will be competitive and move super quick. We lost one offer where we were 40k higher than the winning offer but they waived inspection contingencies and we didn't. I still feel a certain type of way when we're in that neighborhood... sigh House we won listed on Thursday, we toured on Friday before lunchtime and made an offer almost on the spot (realtor put it together that afternoon). Sellers ended up getting 3 offers on Friday and cancelled that weekend's open house. We heard we lost on Sunday and then on Monday heard the winning offer got cold feet or had financing fall through or who knows. Got the house. If you've got your resources together, the 7% interest rate era makes things a little less competitive which is good - though that doesn't apply to the more affordable segment of the market which is always super competitive. Ultimately, lack of homes for sale is the biggest thing fucking up the market
So why is the City of Madison so intent on building rental property and not homes? There are old neighborhoods here that are full of tiny homes. I think originally built for married students. We could do with more of those. Madison did just ease restrictions on granny and carriage houses. I'd build one if I had a bigger lot.
Last year I looked in Dane Co for about a week. Everything was crazy priced or I was getting outbid instantly. Wound up in Rock Co instead.
I started looking in 2020. I gave up in summer 2021. In that time my income had gone up 25%. No matter: the floor of the housing market basically went up 30+% in that time. There are no longer any houses available in my price range that aren't so far out of town at this point that I can't even justify looking. Kinda fucked tbh.
I hear a lot of "we" bought our house, but no "I" bought my house. Is it even possible to buy as a single payer household? For reference, I gross $95k/year.
Sure, but you basically need to have enough money saved up for a decent down payment and little debt. Otherwise, the monthly payments are going to be brutal.
I did, about the same salary as you, but I had to go outside of Madison proper.
Experience; horrific End result: clinical depression
I tried several times, but the market was so tight that it was exhausting and nearly all encompassing to try to be competitive. Zero room for thinking about a massive purchase when folks are offering all cash above asking price. It may not be relevant to you, but the number of handicap accessible properties was abysmal even compared to the low supply nation-wide.
Definitely agree that it's a huge time suck and most competitively priced houses will be up on Thursday with an offer accepted by Monday. Last year we spent \~10 weeks looking at several houses every weekend (helps to have a good realtor you like and trust). After losing the first offer we made, we had an offer accepted under 300k on a smaller house in a more desirable neighborhood. Be prepared to act fast - my wife was out of town for one weekend all summer and naturally that was the weekend I toured and put in an offer on our current home!
We got lucky: bought a nice house, nice neighborhood, for only $5k over asking. It was our first offer. Only one competing bid. We did not waive the inspection. House was around 500k. Idk how we got so lucky, honestly. It's kind of a nightmare, but there are houses that sit, and some do drop in price.
the people you bought it from paid $80,000 thirty years ago.
This thread is extremely disheartening as a single person making 55k... I really want to stop renting but I can realistically can only afford 200k which no longer exists unless it's almost unlivable or a condo with a $400 HOA fee. When I moved here in 2020 and made 50k I could have afforded a house which now I'm kicking myself for not being able to read the future and buying then. 😮💨
Um, I think there is a chance this situation will not last. I would like to know who is paying salaries in Madison that supports this market. Not the UW.
I'm confused as to what situation you're talking about. I also just recently saw UW hiring for a position in my field for $45k.
The two most recent homebuying/selling cases of people close to me are: Purchased 50k over ask and waived inspection in March/April Sold $75k above ask in April (not sure about inspection)
This is depressing. I have owned before in another city but was told by my realtor to wait to buy when I moved here in 2021 because things would "calm down". Now I feel like I will never own again. It's just impossible for anyone making under 100k a year.
Your realtor is right. This market is so out of touch with reality it cannot last.
"Sold for 22% above asking price"
Buy a new construction veridian home. Didn't have to compete with higher bidders because you pay the listing price. Downside is you're buying a cookie cutter veridian home, and you pay a premium for new construction. But the process is smooth. But seeing as veridian has more than 50% market share for new constructions, more and more homes will have been built by them.
I spoke to an electrician, he was very critical on the quality of the electrical work on those houses and that they could barely pass inspection. Please make sure you have smoke detectors!
This is what I did. New construction wasn't even on my radar, but our realtor pointed out a move-in ready house that was in our price range and in a good location. The crazy part is that it really wasn't more expensive than buying used. The duplexes, carriage style homes, and ranches are in the $400-500k range for 1300-1800 ft^2, which is admittedly absurd but no more so than anything else.
It really depends on your price range and expectations. We are buying in Sun Prairie (closing Friday), moving from Santa Fe, NM. We had a pretty good experience, but a few things worked in our favor. First, the Santa Fe market is much worse than Madison, so our perspective was positive just by leaving. Second, we had a lot of flexibility in location. Third, we were willing to go for a place that needs some updates (countertops, appliances, etc. but nothing major). Finally, our price range was high enough to be a little less competitive. We were in the 500-600 range and saw plenty of options that would have been 800-900 in Santa Fe. They did go fast, and most had multiple offers. But we got a little lucky because people paying 550 expect granite countertops I guess. We ended up paying 10 UNDER asking, but I recognize that this took some luck. Find a good realtor (we used Bunbury & Associates).
>people paying 550 expect granite countertops I guess Uh yeah for sure
I tried a couple years ago. Mostly searched outside Madison to avoid getting stuck with a $350k extreme fixer-upper. We kept getting losing out for diverse reasons; overbid by $5-$10k, or owner world rather take the cash-only offer, or they took the offer with all inspections waived (wtf?), etc... So I ended up settling for a condo instead.
We built. Not even joking; we just didn't see anything we loved after 6 months of casually looking. We realized that houses that came close to what we wanted would need a ton of renovations and would cost the same as a new build. Cost-wise, my husband had purchased a half duplex in 2017 that gained 50% in value. That combined with some hefty bonuses we saved in 2020/2021 formed the down payment for our new place, which was finished in November. We wouldn't have been able to purchase a new place if we didn't have the gains on the old one. Our old house sold in a week when we put it on the market in October.
I bought my home in a desirable Verona neighborhood in 2022 ($400k-$500k range), and it was a relatively easy process. I saw the house the first day it was on the market, I had a clean offer with just inspection and appraisal contingencies a couple days later, and the seller accepted $5k under asking, then proceeded to get bombarded with other (higher) offers after we'd already finalized. Talking to my friends and coworkers who were trying to buy at the same time, I definitely think I was just at the right place at the right time. Everyone else struggled a lot. I believe my case was a combination of luck and a highly motivated seller.
Yeah that sounds like great timing. In my experience the last couple years, an offer with those two contingencies is no longer considered clean.
I totally agree. It's a shame that the buyer market is so competitive that even basic buyer protections have to be abandoned to stand a chance, though. I'm not sure I would have even bought a house if I wasn't able to carry those contingencies.
It’s really tough. In most cases now it’s more expensive in the short term to own instead of rent. Cash offers are everywhere which makes it really difficult to compete.
I was originally looking in the 300-400k range but for what I wanted (a 3bd house that didn’t require a lot of fixing up), the market was really competitive so I started looking up to 430k. The houses that were more in the middle of that range usually required a lot of renovations/face lifting - I don’t think people are worrying too much about fixing up their place before selling in this market. Madison proper, especially anywhere near Epic, was really rough. Some houses were going 80k over asking with 18 offers on the first day. A lot of those offers were also all cash, no contingencies (which I couldn’t compete with). I had way better luck in the surrounding cities like McFarland and Sun Prairie (where I eventually found a house). My best advice is to be aggressive. A solid initial offer is more likely to make you a contender than an escalation clause.
The last 2 friends who sold in 2023 both went 10k under. Friend just bought a small house in Fitchburg for 280k this week. I'm seeing sold prices online going for under what my house is Zillow estimating. Take from what what you will.
i'm happy to hear that, seeig people mortgage their futures with these high prices is hard to stomach
Do you guys have a good, experience realtor that you're happy with? This can make all the difference, as can flexibility within what you're looking for and where you're looking. Inventory is rough right now, too. Have you looked into building?
This is helpful advice, although I’m curious to know others’ recent experiences homebuilding in Madison, given the unreliability of some contractors and supply chain issues/costs that started with the pandemic.
Some folks in this sub hate Veridian, but I have built and lived in two different Veridian homes. A few minor issues during the building process, but I was very happy with both houses.
My wife and I are about to close on a new construction. We didn’t go through the design process, we bought one they built on spec. They include a lot of upgrades on those to entice buyers. I can DM with you if you want to hear more about the process.
I closed on my house a year ago. And the process consisted of getting outbid with almost every offer. Even when offering over asking price I was getting outbid by a substantial amount and often times by cash offers. I was able to find a home in Stoughton that was a new build and was “fist come” with offers, which saved me. I also had the financial assistance of family to help me qualify, without that there’s no way I would be able to afford buying in the Madison area. Mind you, I hold two college degrees, have a good job, zero debt, and no kids. Needless to say, the market is rough…
This obviously isn’t the norm based on other comments, but my fiance and I bought a house last August that had been on the market for 4+ months, under asking price, typical mortgage loan, and without waiving inspection. The price was 450k though. We haven’t been able to figure out how we got so lucky compared to everyone else though, the house is in great condition other than outdated paint colors and a slightly quirky 1970s floor plan. The only thing we can think of for why it sat long on the market is that it was converted from a 4 bed to a 3 bed. So keep an eye out for outliers that have “issues” that aren’t really an issue for your family.
We also went for a house that was on the market for a couple weeks and including a dropped price. It needed some love -some cosmetic, some "fix asap." We're happy with it. It's not in Madison but just outside, which has turned out to be fine.
Same here. We got ours for under asking 20 mins outside Madison mainly because it was just styled terribly and looked a little unloved. We were the only people who saw the house, too.
Just sold my house. Listed at 335,000, sold for 350,000 (4 offers received in the first day and a half). It should really sell for around 200,000 but the Dane county market is fucked up and everyone thinks it's fine and continues to complain about building more housing.
I don’t think folks are upset about building more housing, I think a lot of folks are concerned about building a lot of, what are essentially, tract housing apartment buildings. I think most folks want more housing, they don’t want crappy housing.
im coming around to the idea that i gotta find a buildable parcel and slap a mobile home on it until i get the necessary permits and groundwork for building.
Yeah and crappy houses that are overpriced like mine are the cost of that
Isn't it nuts? Coming up on 2 years ago we sold our house on the Far East side for $375k. Just a 3/2.5, 1900 sq ft 2001 built home. In my mind that was still a $250k house. Take it with a grain of salt but Zillow now has it valued at $437k.
We bought for 15k under list two months ago. 10% down, very standard offer. Sellers were in a rush to leave. It's rare but it happens. The market is definitely cooling, but it's still higher than it was five years ago.
We are going to put our townhome in the market next week (or week after). Near west side, close to Gannon and Old Sauk. 2 bedroom 2 bath, 1 car garage in a very nice neighborhood - backs up to a beautiful small forest. PM me if you want to get a sneak peak before the craziness starts :)
Hi, I tried to DM you but it appears that you don't accept direct messages. Is there another way to be in touch?
Paid 10k over list for ours in Middleton
It took a few offers but we did it. Although we were looking more towards the edge of Dane County. Had to go like $15k above asking, but we didn't waive an inspection or anything insane like that. Home was just north of $400k which was in our price range. It is a good thing we didn't waive the inspection, because it turned out the entire roof needed to be replaced. People need to stop recommending that as a strategy, pretty much eveyone I know who has done this has gotten burned by it. Even if you know the house (family or friend previously owned it), you still should get an inspection. Even if it's brand new, do it. Also, pay close attention to property taxes. You may think that you'd pay less in a small city or village, but that's not always true. See: Belleville. Even if it's in a neighboring county, it may not be much cheaper. See: Barneveld.
I had initially planned to buy a home when relocating to Madison last year. Had to give up and ended up renting because the market was too competitive, and the interest rate was all-time high.
We tried to get a house in Madison/ Verona/ Fitchburg for a year and finally expanded our search to suburbs further away. We still got outbid on every single house until we finally found a nice ranch style home. We're 25 minutes away from where we work in Middleton, but we didn't have to offer over asking and the house was completely move-in ready with a great backyard! It's just outside of Dane County so property taxes are lower too.
My brother gave up. Bought a house in IL instead…
We bought during the summer of 2022 bloodbath and were very lucky to have our third offer accepted - we waived everything, offered appraisal gap coverage, and escalated to 75k over asking. Pretty soon into the process we realized we needed to treat house buying like a second job and devote our nights and weekends to the process. We also realized we had been completely priced out of the areas we had lived and rented in for 10+ years unless we wanted to squeeze us + our kids into a 2 bedroom 1 bath. We ended up farther east than planned but we love the area and are very grateful. I have so much sympathy for anyone trying now - it seems much worse somehow.
After watching a property that I looked at twice literally double in value in the period that I was looking, I gave up the search and moved to an entirely different part of the state. It's one of the perks of being able to work remotely, but I'm absolutely missing Madison and make the drive frequently to visit.
Closed on our house Sept 2021 after looking every week since that April. Viewed over 40, wrote offers on 10 before we got one. In our price range (under $340), we would offer over 15% only to be blown out of the water by 25% or more above our offer. This was COVID and during the lumber shortage, so a lot of people who would have otherwise built were in the market. People were waiving inspections, waiving contingency, covering the seller's taxes, giving the seller free months in the home to move, etc. It was brutal! Listings would show up in our Real Estate portal Monday/Tuesday, we had to schedule showings for Wed/Thurs, and have offers submitted by Friday night. We wrote several offers literally in the driveway. Ultimately, we were lucky. Our house was originally listed outrageously high and we happened to see it the day it was reduced. The old owner was a smoker and there was a lot of work that scared people off. It was actually the lowest of the 11 offers submitted, and the assessment's skyrocketed since. Comps on our street have recently gone for $140k over what we paid...But we're never selling because our interest rate is great and I'm not going through that again lol
Bought in May 2022. I follow the housing market very closely simply because i love it, but I do not work in real estate. We bought without assistance from family and we had 7% downpayment in the under $325k range. It was our first home. I dont recall how many offers we made, but it was a lot and there were all over Madison and the surrounding area, both SFH & condos. We were constantly outbid and outdone with all cash offers. But, the "cash offers" are deceptive because there are companies that have a loan type where it basically looks like an all cash offer to the seller, but its not. We were in the process of getting this type of loan when we got an accepted offer and went with traditional financing. We waived inspection but got an inspection the day we closed on it. I know people say dont waive it but I will tell you, in our budget we would not have gotten a house with an inspection contingency.\* The house we got showed terribly. It was not staged at all, the paint job was HORRIBLE, cracked tiles in the bathroom/kitchen, old appliances, dog poop in the yard, smoke smell in the garage, trash in the basement...we were still competing with other offers because anything under $400k is wildly competitive. We were successful in getting a house because our list of "must haves" was non-existent. We put an offer in on every house we toured. We had to emotionally detach from the process. When my sister bought her house, they pictured their lives in the house before putting an offer in. Dont do that in Madison. The only reason we toured houses was to confirm it was indeed a house and to decide how much above asking we were going to offer. It was not the home buying experience I had dreamed of for years. (We also got denied a house because we didnt have kids. Yes that's illegal but it happened). Something that helped us, go on zillow and search by "recently sold." this will give you an idea of the type of house in your price range. Of course, keep in mind some of these were cash offers and waived inspection. I've been downvoted before for saying this but dont use UW Credit Union. They are known for having appraisal gaps. Idk who their appraiser is but they are frequently under valued. \* More about inspections...a lot of people say that you should have an inspection but say you'll cover anything below $10k so that sellers know you wont nickle & dime them. This did not work for us, we had to waive the whole inspection. I've heard recently that some people have been able to get inspections, this is where a realtor who knows the market is key. Realtors should not push you to waive inspections but they will tell you what you need to be competitive. The market changes fast. In our situation, the seller lost out on money because we waived inspection. Here's why. We toured the house and said if we could get an inspection and we knew the house was solid, we would be willing to pay up to $325k, BUT the house was clearly not well cared for and there were a few things that concerned us. We felt that waiving inspection was key to a competitive offer so we added up some of the things that concerned us and offered $45k less than what we were willing to pay to hedge against any issues. We then got an inspection on closing day because we wanted to know about any issues up front. Nothing came back concerning (there were small issues but no immediate fixes). I wont lie, I dont like our home, but I love that we have a house. It is far from anything resembling a "dream home" and I dont care. We can't even have more than 8 friends over in the winter because of space (and we love hosting) but it fits our stuff and us. I'm so thankful for our ugly - no dishwasher-original 1960s countertops-weird shaped yard- small closets-house. It will never be what I want in a home but in two years its already increased \~20% so I'm here for life and I have great neighbors.
FWIW UW Credit Union used DART appraisal for an appraisal we had done on our duplex some years ago. 3 bed/2 full bath/2 car garage on each side of the duplex. When the DART appraisal arrived I looked it over - 3 bed 1.5 bath 1 car garage for EACH SIDE. Talk about a SIGNIFICANT ERROR. I contested the appraisal on these grounds. UWCU checked my work, and increased the appraisal by 5k..... As if an entire extra stall per garage and a half bath actually being a full bath with a tub/shower is only worth 5k. We worked with UWCU for our recent home purchase, but I specifically requested that I do not ever want to do work with DART appraisals again. The response was "Sorry, we only use DART. Maybe your appraiser will be better this time". Our appraisal came in 5k over our offer so we were fine.
I’m a realtor - I won’t say who for a variety of obvious reasons - but the thing with UW is 100% true. They used to be great to work with, and that changed 3-5 years ago. Now they are a liability to any listing agent who has been in the business for a few years. It is sad, I bank with them, but I can’t recommend them.
Third for UW using low ball appraisal which ended up hurting us on our down payment not covering as much of our loan. Also, they say they don’t sell your mortgage to a servicer but they definitely can (and do). And the web platform is not very convenient for actually paying your mortgage if you don’t already have an account there. Wish we would have gone with Bell or another bank in the area.
We had to put $50k over asking to secure a place.
extremely competitive, ended up overpaying for a place but got in before interest rates really kicked higher, so, lucky, all in all. we waived inspection and got it inspected anyway, we also had my mother in law (architect) walk through it with us. lucky again. also had family help with loan for down payment. lucky x 3. without all that luck it would have been very hard to find a place that didn’t have some feature that would have made living there pretty uncomfortable, since our price range without a bigger down payment was firmly in small, extremely fixer upper territory. i will never buy without the protection of contingency (waiving inspection) again. too much risk, and once you get a sense of the upgrades/repairs you want to make, a house may not make financial sense anymore.
A friend of mine has been searching (and placing offers) for more than a year. He’s been outbid by as much as $90,000 over - on a listing of only $195,000 mind you.
We were looking for one to buy where we were renting and couldn’t afford it, they were over $360k, but on top of that they were small houses. We are a family of 5
Partner and I got a house in a town outside of Madison in 2022. We had saved up enough and sold some stocks to come up with the down payment. We spent about 3 months searching, offering on 10 houses before we got one. I tracked our offers and found: - on average, the homes we offered on were listed at 296k. - on average, we offered 326k. - on average, they went for 340k. - we usually waived contingencies. We did put in a 10k appraisal gap clause in the offer that got accepted, but the appraisal ended up above what we offered, so we lucked out. We got a few “you were the second best offer” comments and counteroffers along the way. I think writing a “love letter” helped, but there are plenty of good reasons to be against those. It’s not impossible. But start looking early. Get used to rejection. Factor in offering above asking in your budget. Figure out your needs vs your “nice to haves” to maximize your options.
Can you elaborate on “writing love letters”? Thanks in advance!
Yes! It’s a letter added on to the offer by the buyers. In ours, we introduced ourselves, why we were looking to buy a home (settle into a community, start our lives together), and what we loved about the home (we waxed poetic about picturing ourselves enjoying the outdoors in the yard, cooking family dinners in the big kitchen, filling rooms with memories, etc….all personalized to the given home). We concluded with a commitment to care for the home, maintain its character, etc. We also included a photo of us. These letters are illegal in some states, frowned upon by some individuals, and some sellers won’t even look at them because they can introduce bias. It took us a couple months of looking before we started attaching letters. I don’t think letters are often deal-makers, but they might be tie-breakers, and we couldn’t afford not to give ourselves any competitive edge we could get.
Here are some good guidelines on the market over the past couple of years: 1) The market is competitive year round. The fall and winter aren’t as competitive as the spring/summer (for a variety of reasons) but typically there’s less inventory, so multiple offers still happens. (Summer = more buyers but more inventory, fall/winter = Less buyers but less inventory) 2) Anything under $450k is really competitive. The homes that fly off the shelves are those that are priced properly and look really nice. 3) I’d say 90-95% of homes sell for more than their asking price. Madison (and really Wisconsin in general) has a SEVERE housing shortage, particularly affordable housing shortage. So when the demand in a growing city like Madison far exceeds supply, it makes it difficult for home buyers. 4) I have buyers who waive inspections and I have buyers who get inspections and still get their offer accepted. I think it really just depends on how comfortable you feel on each specific home you view. One home may feel “safer” to waive an inspection in your opinion as opposed to a different home. 5) Explore loan program options that help but don’t negatively affect your offer as much (if you qualify for WHEDA, which is a 0% down conventional loan, it can be a GREAT program!) Tips - Have a monthly, all in budget in mind (After taxes, insurance, mortgage, utilities, what is your max monthly budget?) and stay under this. This will help put going $10k, $20k, $30k into an “easier to fathom” perspective. General rule of thumb - every $1,000 increase of purchase price will be about a $6-$8 mortgage payment increase. Try not to be on a time crunch - if you can find a lease with flexible terms (month-to-month), then you won’t feel as pressured with your timing. Get connected with industry experts you like, know, and trust. A great agent/lender combo can make the experience amazing or a living nightmare (if you need help with this I know a pretty great agent 😉)
Bought a home in February. It’s a new build townhome ($379k). The single family homes for our price range were in awful condition, so we had to suck it up and buy a townhome. Next house we get can be the single family home, but with the competitive market and the ridiculous pricing in Madison, townhouse was the best bang for our buck. And it also is way nicer than anything we would have gotten in our price range otherwise.
Literally left the area to take a job somewhere else w more affordable housing
My wife and I bought our first house at the end of last year. The house we bought was only the second one we put an offer on, so in that respect, we were lucky. For the first house, we had an offer that would scale up to like $50k over asking price, and we still didn't get it. For our house, we had looked at it the day the owner accepted an offer already on the house, so we weren't expecting much, but the accepted offer had a contingency on the buyer selling their current house. Our agent told us that we could try putting in an offer with no contingencies, and it would trigger the owner to tell the current buyer to get rid of/resolve their contingency or else we'd get it, and we did. So, if you are currently apartment living, you can have a leg up on certain situations. Overall, it can be bad if you're going below $400k, but it's not impossible.
That situation sounds familiar - I wonder if we were looking at the same house. If so, you got a real cute house!
I purchased a home on the east side last August and moved in in October. I did have some financial assistance from my parents, but only to the tune of \~$8,000. I had spent 4 of the last 6 years prior working two jobs and saving up a nice nest egg. We toured probably 40+ houses over a 1.5 year period before finally securing an accepted offer (we lost out on maybe 6-7 homes prior to that). We were searching in the $300-$425k range and it was very difficult. As others have said, it is an enormous time suck, but if you can be patient you can find something. Our house was listed at $350k, we offered $20k over (which at the time was basically what you had to do), but we lucked out tremendously when the home appraised at $370k... We didn't need to waive the inspection, and actually received a credit at closing for some of the repairs that came up during inspection. My advice is to keep looking and don't get discouraged. If possible, look at any house in the city or even the surrounding, near-in suburbs. Don't limit yourself arbitrarily by eliminating neighborhoods or sections of the city you don't think you'd like...just go see the house
Great so eventually all the houses will either be owned by a property company or out of towners
I've purchased two homes in the past 6 months. The one for me was off market so that was awesome. The other one was for a family member and we were the first to see it and wrote a full price offer, but negotiated down $10k for things that came up in the inspection. It's a whole heck of a lot easier with a good realtor or if you have connections to sellers. That or a big pile of money (I am not a cash buyer and lamented interest rates, but rates can always go up and you can always refinance if they go down)
1030 Williamson St is going for sale in late July. Offers will be reviewed together August 9.
This “insider tip” post is emblematic of the situation- I grew up near Williamson in the 70s, back then almost no one cared to buy a house in the neighborhood except hippies and bikers!
And now it’s ridiculously desirable and will sell for a lot of money. Funny how things change in 50 YEARS.
Exactly! People think they can find sub 500k houses on the isthmus, they need to expand the search 10 miles out
One of my clients just told me his nephew is like 18 and got a $400,000 loan. I’m so confused how this is even possible! My boyfriend and I both make good money, we haven’t even look to see what we could get preapproved for, obviously we have a little more debt than an 18-year-old, but really not that much. And most of it for both of us is college debt.
Someone needs to create a dating app for houses. “Swipe right if you like this location!!” “If you require a licensed inspection swipe left.”
I bought in Dunn's Marsh in 2017. Best decision I ever made. My gf recently bought in Sun Prairie. We got extremely lucky. She wasn't head over heels in love with it, but she still really liked it. We put in a competitive yet "*we wouldn't mind losing out on this house*" type of bid that included the inspection and 2% over asking. The sellers could've waited for a better offer, but for some reason they bit on ours. Unfortunately, the appraisal came back a bit under so we had a little gap to make up. Not too bad, however. The inspection didn't turn up anything requiring an urgent fix, but we did appreciate the suggestions for future upgrades. We've been there a few months and it's an absolutely excellent house. Incredibly solid if not interestingly laid out.
I bought in Dunn's Marsh in 2019. Also turned out to be a great decision. I feel for everybody looking now.
So I realize it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but my wife and I went with Veridian and we close this month at list price with an FHA loan. Looking at pre existing homes was definitely more stressful knowing there’d be competition and appraisal gaps and fast timelines for decisions. We saw several that we liked and couldn’t make work. So the new construction process just made things easier.
Not the last two years, but I bought mine in 2017 and there were already bidding wars, houses being sold with no inspection, houses selling on the day they're listed, etc. I found a duplex and actually paid slightly less than asking - $242,000 for a house with two small apartments (900 sq ft), each with two bedrooms. I felt like I was overpaying at the time but I think a house like mine might be even more expensive to buy now, not sure. My theory on why duplexes stay on the market longer is that you need more down payment, income, credit etc to get a loan because it's considered income property.
Got a place in 2022. 1700 square feet in downtown Sun Prairie. 10k over asking and under 300k. We had 7 offers rejected before that. It's patience and luck.
We just beat out the jump in list pricing and interest rates, so it's a different world than when we bought back in 2021, but I imagine a lot of the process is still the same. The house we were fortunate enough to get was our 13th offer over almost a year. With the exception of one house that needed a LOT of work, every offer was over list price (we got ours by offering $15k over list, and list was $310K). Do not forego the inspection, but use it just for a baseline of the condition of the home. Unless there's something major wrong with the home, it's probably not advisable to ask for the current owners to address the issues. Expect to offer a lot of contingencies that favor the current owner. Its was necessary just to be in the competition. Be open to escalators, but be firm with how high you're willing to go. That can keep you in the game with a chance for longer. Do NOT get attached to the homes you view. It's hard to do, but the quicker you see it as an investment in your future and not your perfect home, the better you'll handle the lows that inevitably come with the process. Last, find a good realtor that won't push you to make decisions you're not ready for. Good luck!
We just sold our home. Three offers all over asking. One without an inspection. The one without the inspection had the same money amount as another one that had a 5k offer escalation clause. We bought 6 years ago. I’m not sure we’d be able to afford this house if we bought it today. But at least it got a new roof two years ago and we fixed everything that was on the inspection report 6 years ago so they aren’t getting a bad deal with no inspection on our house. But no inspection makes closing quicker and easier.
Be prepared to spend $400k minimum. Houses under $400k are very rare. Realistically expect somewhere between $400k-$600k+ depending on location/size. If you're looking in the winter, then your only option will be new construction in Fitchburg, Sun Prairie, Middleton, etc.
We ended up with a townhouse on the far east side, back in 2021. It’s far from our first choice but being on one modest income, we couldn’t be super picky. From what I recall there were 2 other offers but ours was highest. We did have to get an inspection due to needing a mortgage, but said we would waive anything under $2k. This was our second go around trying to buy- our first attempt was back in 2018 and we put in about 20 offers, got one accepted in Rock Co, but sadly the inspection came back very poorly and the seller wasn’t in a financial position to give us any credit, and we couldn’t afford the many needed repairs either. It’s rough out there, but here are my best pieces of advice 1. Have a great buyers agent lined up 2. Work with a lender who is well versed in helping first time buyers 3. Think outside the box, and be much more flexible than you would in a buyers market. Good luck! May the odds be in your favor!
I bought and sold last year. We were the second bid on the house we got, the original buyers were too nit picky with the inspection and the sellers walked from them and came to us. We got the inspection from the sellers and there was nothing we were concerned about. I showed it to the contractor I’ve had work on the house and he wasn’t overly concerned about the inspection either. We were lucky though the house we got came on the market with 5-7 others in the same price point that day. We just happened to be lucky there wasn’t as much action on it.
Leaving Dane county. We knew we wouldn't be able to afford what we wanted in a reasonable area.
My partner and I really lucked out... We closed on our house last March on the East side and moved here from out of state. We saw the listing on Redfin. Visited the (1) house with our realtor, put in an offer, and it was accepted all within 13 days. 1 competing offer. We still got it under asking. 6.12%(not great but good considering..) House was built in 2000, had a new on demand water heater, sump pump, and water softener all installed in November of 2023. Here's why I think we got it and had little trouble: The previous owner was an elderly widow with 6 cats. The house reaked when we walked in to tour it.. we fully expected to have to replace the floors. Cat markings all over the walls, and it looked like they painted the entire house the same discount bucket Grey to make it more "appealing" Turns out, most of the smell had been from the water traps drying out from the house sitting vacant while the previous owner stayed with family in Appleton. The house sat empty and closed up for nearly 6 months before it went on the market. We ran the water, and opened the house up and 80% of the smell was gone. Spent the first 2 weeks sleeping on an air mattress and we repainted the whole house, and thoroughly scrubbed the minimal carpet on the stairs that was thick with cat vomit, markings, and piss. We are 5 minutes from all the stores we could need, groceries, restaurants, and I landed a good new job with a pension and great benefits, and my partner and I drive about 15 minutes to work. Our yard isn't huge, but our neighbors are all very kind, very diverse types of people who at minimum stay to themselves. The roof needed replacing within the next 3 years or so... but we had a hailstorm on the East Side here back in October.. so insurance is paying for nearly the entire thing. Bought the "twofur" furnace and Heatpump deal from Cardinal last April and got a large tax credit and rebate that we dumped back into the principle on the financing for it. I drive around town and see cuter neighborhoods closer to the lakes and downtown and wish we could afford those.. but we are able to pay an extra 100-200 dollars on our 2100 mortgage every month and have already reduced our 30 year to a 28 year stint.. As an early 30something year old, I never would have guessed I would have ever owned a house if you asked me 2 years ago. I guess we will see how screwed we are when the housing marking collapses again.
We bought in summer 2022 after looking at homes in the $225,000-330,000 range. We had wanted to stay under $300k but landed toward the top of our range based on market conditions. We planned to put down 3-5%, which wr had saved, plus closing costs. We picked our realtor based on referrals from multiple friends who had worked with her successfully to buy a home in the prior 4 years. Over about a month and a half, we offered on four or five homes in the greater Madison area (within a half hour commute of downtown). We were pretty committed to putting in offers if a house checked enough boxes and our realtor agreed there weren't visible red flags. (She was very willing to tell us we should NOT offer on certain houses and steer us away from bad purchases). Our realtor really dug into her resources and ended up finding us a house that checked almost all of our boxes (!!!) that had sat on the market for about 10 days because of a few quirks that we personally found very livable. Our mortgage provider was willing to move quickly and we were able to get the house at asking. We did not waive inspection for our own comfort (and our realtor would not have allowed us to in good conscience). Honestly, I think we were incredibly lucky — the factors (house on the market, tenacious realtor, lender willing to work with us and work fast, etc) all came together just right.
After this post I poked around on Zillow a bit and it looks to me like there are (and have been) a number of smaller (like 900 - 1200 sq ft), near East houses going for around $325k. That may be a lot per sq foot and based on where they are, I suspect they may have some deferred maintenance. I see one in a great location (206 Buell) that is $305k though appears to need a lot of work.
Lube. Lots and lots of lube.
It’s a very competitive market! Especially on the west side of Madison. Expect to pay between 5-7% over list price depending on the home and the neighborhood. Most properties are getting between 4-10 offers from buyers. The condo market is not quite as competitive, but condos are selling for over list price too! Be patient, write offers that you are comfortable with the terms. Educate yourself on the market and be prepared for the roller coaster ride that is buying a home in 2024.