We bought our first house in the summer of 2021 in Massachusetts. Our budget was roughly 300,000. The house was listed at 295,000 and we asked what they needed to cancel the open house. We bought at 310,000 (what they said they were looking for) and got a response back within hours of submitting the offer that they had accepted it. It was the second house we put an offer on.
We started looking for our second house in January of this year. We are working with the same realtor we had in 2021. Everyone told us that the interest rates were higher but the market was way less crazy than it was in 2021 when houses were jumping off the market in less than 24 hours. Our budget this time around is 500,000. We have gone to see 10 houses, we have put offers on 5 of them. Our offers are strong. 20% down, 20-50k over listing price, and only contingencies are the inspection (which is it illegal to deny in Massachusetts now), and the appraisal (which we are willing to cover a gap up to a certain amount). We are not contingent on selling our house. We can work with short closings, long closings, rent backs, whatever is needed. We have been beat out all 5 times. The market is not better, the market is worse. There should be no reason we cannot get an offer accepted with strong finances and very little contingencies. This is crazy.
Edit to add: These houses we are looking at aren't much bigger than our current house either, even though they are going for twice the price. They are roughly 200-400 square feet larger, with either an extra bed or an extra half bath. We are trying to move for a larger yard and for the location.
Posted by TheSmallestSloth
4 Comments
I can’t imagine being in a market like that still in 2026, as a first time home buyer I love being in Austin where there’s price cuts everywhere. I feel bad for anyone trying to start their life and get their foot in the door for real estate in those areas where you still have to offer money over asking price
You may have just gotten lucky with your first home. But it’s just a sample size thing. You keep going.
I just closed my house recently on our 5th try and it was 11% above asking, although it was priced really low so only really 5% above asking when comparing comps.
You can ask your realtor to get comparable in the area you are looking now from 2021 and that will give you a better idea how the market is actually doing.
Frustrating situation but honestly not surprising for Massachusetts right now, inventory is just brutal and even strong offers lose constantly. The appraisal contingency might be hurting you more than you think. Even with gap coverage some sellers just see any appraisal language as risk and go with whoever removed it entirely. Worth asking your realtor what the winning offers actually looked like on those 5, listing agents usually share that after closing. Are you pretty locked in on specific towns or is there some flexibility on location?