Next Steps After Real Estate Showings

Below, I go over the next steps for buyers after they've finished showings, whether they've ruled out all properties, they're considering an offer, or something in between.

If Not Wanting to Make an Offer

• Some buyers might rule out all properties they see in the first showings

• The more you care about a property or properties in those first showings, if not immediately making an offer, the greater the urgency of additional showings that you think could be as good or better.

• The more you think something better is likely to come up, the less urgently you should seek additional showings.

Start Putting Together an Offer (Even if Just the Basics Without Anything Specific to a Property) with Your Agent

Even before you see your first property, it's possible to identify various preferences you might have on an offer so that when the time comes to make an offer, you're able to execute that faster. However, most buyers don't do that before their first offer. If you haven't done that yet, and you're definitely going to be buying a house, it's a good idea to do that before an urgent offer situation arises.

If Wanting to Make an Offer, Expeditious Offers are Vital

In some cases, it's a matter of hours between when you see a property and when a seller accepts an offer. In rare cases, it can happen in the middle of a showing. Some properties go under contract the same day that they hit the market. The longer you wait to make an offer after seeing a property, the higher your risk. The risks are lower for properties that have been on the market for a long time, but I've still seen where buyers wait too long, assuming that because it's been on the market so long, they have plenty of time to make an offer.

Research if You Didn't Get to It Before Showings

• There are a number of property elements to view online prior to a showing request; However, many don't get to them all.

• Be sure to research elements where your agent's opinion that they share is restricted by law, like crime & school districts.

• Look into area factors

• Credit & finances

Additional Research Available

• I suggest going through my Master Spreadsheet for Prospective Home Purchase Considerations for any property you're considering making an offer on.

• Ask your agent to pull comparable sales if there's time before other offers are coming in and getting responded to.

• Ask your agent to pull the First Street data for the property that isn't publicly available.

• Ask your agent about any questions or concerns you might have.

Additional Exploration

Some buyers prefer a more experiential approach to additional research. Consider tours of neighborhoods and the area, whether with your agent in a neighborhood or neighborhoods or paid options, i.e. tours available in Virginia Beach.

Listing Agents Often Skip Best Practices

When I represent sellers, I like to proactively reach out to buyers' agents who have shown the property once an offer comes in. However, most listing agents that I encounter don't do that nearly to the degree that I do.

Buyer's Agents Often Skip Best Practices

I'm in a small minority of agents whose default initial text includes a request to not just ask about current offer activity (which isn't uncommon), but to also ask if the agent can let me know if one comes in the future prior to accepting.

If You Wait too Long to Make an Offer, The Best Buyer's Agent is Limited on Follow-Up Structurally Due to Problems if They're Too Aggressive

Even though I ask buyers at the initial time of a showing request to let me know about if an offer comes in, agents often say they will and then don't, especially if there's a substantial amount of time (i.e. >24 hrs) after the showing before that offer comes in. If I were to text an agent once a day for a week while waiting for a buyer, it could both hurt an offer if we eventually made one (because it would be annoying to the listing agent) & could encourage other offers to come in if the listing agent broadcast that I was doing that.