One family looked for their home for about a year and finally got theirs by giving the seller more. The Grewal family has called this 2,000 square foot house home for about 20 days. The family of six looked at more than 50 homes for over a year before getting taken up on an offer. And they were willing to pay.
"Yeah, it's hard," said homeowner Harjeet Grawal. "We put like more than $10,000 and we didn't get it."
Realtors say buyers are more willing now to pay above asking price and even closing costs along with other incentives just to get their offer accepted.
"But I think that they're being smart, that they're doing what they have to do to get the offer accepted," said Fresno realtor Don Scordino.
He says buyers should be careful not to bid over what the home would appraise for in order to qualify for the bank loan.
"The ones that are paying attention know that they may have to pay the asking price or maybe more," Scordino said. "And they might have to throw something in, like give the seller a couple of weeks extra time to move after the close of escrow, to entice the seller."
This new buying trend shows a recovery in the works for the real estate world, according to Scordino. He also says the California Association of Realtors comparison of buyers in 2006 to last year proves that point.
Back then only 11-percent of buyers offered cash for a home compared to 30-percent now. Adjustable rate mortgages, which caused a lot of people to lose their homes, have also dropped drastically. And more buyers these days are putting more than 20-percent down, in addition to their appealing home-buying offers.
