Getting ready to check out houses this week or weekend in Southwest Washington? If you are house hunting in The Couve, you’ll want to remember our “Go with the Flow” series that focuses on Clark County. Think of this as your The Couve Homes real estate insights, our unique transparent “behind the scenes” and proactive approach to help you with a successful home buying process outcome. This is part two, as part one focuses on the yearly cycle.
When discussing buying around The Couve in Washington, we’ll be referring to these main cities: Vancouver, Camas, and Washougal.
Tip: Understand weekly inventory timing cycles and what to expect to help plan your home search.
Go with the Flow
While houses come on the market every day in The Couve cities and surrounding areas, typical housing market patterns occur weekly. By understanding what to expect on particular days of the week, you can adjust based on what’s happening and your goals. This way, you won’t be behind the gun when finding a home you may like this weekend. Instead of being reactive, you can be proactive with guidance from your realtor (like me) to establish a more strategic home-buying plan to reduce the stress in the process.
Here are the weekly housing market activity trends you’ll want to keep in mind:
- New listings
- Open houses
- Back on market
- Offers due
Viewing The Couve Houses
When deciding to see a house in person after searching or looking online, if there’s no open house, you’ll have to reach out to an agent to preview the house privately. Just know before doing so, Washington state requires that a Buyers Agency Agreement is signed before seeing a house or performing any real estate services. Reach out to me and I’ll walk through what this means in a home discovery session.
New Listings in The Couve
Every day, you’ll find new house listings online or from what your agent sends you. You’ll notice that starting from Wednesday through Friday, more houses come to market during these days. This is to prepare for the upcoming weekend for you and other buyers to go see the houses. Not all new The Couve houses that show up on the market have open houses, so the only way to see them is to schedule a showing with your agent.
If the price, condition, and location of the new house seem like a great value, expect that other buyers will also see the house as something to see on the weekend. With lots of interests, you can expect different types of buyers to come to the house.
Open Houses
When you identify houses that you want to see in person, whether with your agent or just to check out, you’ll find that most open houses occur on the weekends, either Saturday or Sunday and sometimes both days. Times could start from 10 am and end around 7 pm. The length of an open house can vary from one hour to a few hours, so you’ll have to plan accordingly.
Sometimes, you may find a house that does twilight opens – Fridays late afternoon / evening (anywhere from 3 – 6 pm) and typically more common in Spring and Summer. This is to accommodate buyers getting off of work and catch them before the weekend begins.
When a house seems to have a lot of interest at the open house, some buyers come without their agent and then come again with their agent the next day. The second time through helps to look and be able to ask questions, get guidance from their agent, and decide whether to put in an offer. Many buyers are coming from outside of The Couve area and coming from Oregon, other states, or other parts of Washington.
Don’t be surprised if, on the second or next day, the seller has accepted an offer before, during, or right after the last open house. If an offer has been selected during the open house time, the house is no longer available for showing. I’ve had this happen before and had to inform buyers there is no longer an open house.
Back on Market
These houses initially went into pending and were taken off the market for some time and have now returned to the market. Whether the reason was buyer financing, inspection findings, or not being able to agree upon repairs, the house is now back on the market and can show up any day of the week and time of day. If this house had interest before or buyers that missed the opportunity to view the house, they may now be able to. There may or may not be a price reduction as well as open houses on the weekend.
Offers Due
When there’s a lot of interest from showings or the open house, you can expect that an offer would be submitted either later that evening or in the early part of the week (Monday / Tuesday). Working with your trusted agent may receive notification that an offer has been submitted and now a day and time for the highest and best offers are to be in. If you’re unrepresented, reach out to me for a home offer strategy session so that you can begin the process of putting in an offer in a timely manner.
Whether you are just searching online or planning to see one or more houses this weekend, let your agent know so that you can be more prepared in case you decide to write an offer. Having a home-buying strategy plan based on your needs, must-haves and wants helps to reduce the stress and eliminate unnecessary driving if the house doesn’t meet your criteria.
Next up!
Now that you understand the weekly trend, let’s get you familiar with how to navigate with Go with the Flow Part 3: Sellers vs Buyers Market! Gain additional The Couve real estate insights to help save you time and stress!
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