Getting the deal done is real work in todays market!

Things have been picking up here in the SE Wisconsin real estate market.  Buyers expectations have never been higher.  Most buyers want to see everything in person they can.  They are looking high and low for a great deal.  Time is now on the buyers side and sometimes it’s days between seeing a home and writing an offer on it.  Once the offer is written it is expected that there will be several counter offers prior to acceptance.  I have one offer that was just accepted that took almost 40 days and 7 counter offers before the offer was accepted.  Every buyer is writing a low offer as their opening play.  No one wants to leave money on the table.  If the buyer doesn’t find the terms to be acceptable they just move on to the next offer.  Another buyer I am working with is now looking to write an offer on a fourth property.  No fault of his though, the third property had issues after the home inspection.  No deal seems to run smoothly any more.  Every step of the way there are snags and hang-ups.  Finding a property for the buyer seems to drag out a lot longer than before.  Weather it’s the negotiating the initial offer to purchase or issues that arise from the home inspection these start to seem like small issues compared to the lending side of the deal.  There is now more than ever problems with underwriting!  Banks are so strict that it’s seems nearly impossible to get a deal closed.  The rules keep changing and it seems like there is an ever growing list of items that need to be checked and re-checked several times before we even get to the closing table.  I could understand if this was for a buyer that was under qualified.  The truth is that these buyers have good solid jobs, good down payments, and great credit scores!  These should be slam-dunk deals for the lenders.    It will be interesting to see how or if things start changing now that interest rates while still historically low, have now shot up to the mid 5% range.