How long does it take to buy a house?

I'm working with some sellers right now who have been great! They keep their house spotless, try their best to accomodate all showings and to top it off, are listed at a great price.
Recently a buyer looked at this house one day, wrote an offer the second, countered on the third, countered on the fourth, and are still thinking about it on the fifth!
It's so interesting to see different negotiating tactics in the world of real estate. Some people are stoically firm, sweet and accommodating, indifferent, and sometimes even panicked. In my experience, the folks that take days to come to decisions, are the least successful and the reasons involve pure psychology.
Excitement level diminishes considerably which opens the door for indifference, stress, and sometimes even hostility between buyer and seller. Sellers want to feel good about someone moving into "their house" and creating good memories. Buyers of course, want to feel like they're getting the best price possible.
How do you think you'd act in the sellers or buyers shoes?
I'll keep you posted to how this negotiation goes.
Talk to you soon.
Paige

Some interesting tid-bits

I wrote an offer recently for a house in Shannon Lake, West Kelowna. This house backed the landfill which was fine with the buyer because he thought the landfill was closing soon... as did I. Off we went to do our homework...
We were shocked to find out the details. The landfill isn't in fact closing anytime soon. According to the RDCO documents on-line it may not close until 2013, but probably 2010. Also, once the garbage part of it closes, it will become a transfer station (where areas like Peachland bring their garbage to load into bins that will be transferred elsewhere) as well as a re-cycling depot! Needless to say, we collapsed the offer.
Some people think I'm too picky about my information gathering... this is a perfect example of why it's so important to dig deep (no pun intended!)
This same buyer got involved in a dual offer situation last night for one of the coolest houses I've seen in a long time! We came up with a strong strategy, pulled out all the stops, and WON out over the other buyer! Off we go to do our homework...
Talk to you soon.
Paige

Kelowna Real Estate is BUSY

OK... I didn't drop off the face of the earth, it's just that people are coming around and the real estate market is hopping!
Prices really seem to have levelled out in Kelowna and in fact I believe we're now in a balanced market vs. a buyers or sellers market. Not as much inventory has come on this spring as it usually does so those buyers have only so many homes to choose from. With this in mind, offers on homes priced correctly are closer to list price than they have been lately. The sellers who were slow to respond to the market change are scrambling now to get back in the game with some big price reductions bringing their property into the competitive arena. Banks are bouncing around with their interest rates... some even inching them up!
Anyone out there thinking the market is going to come down should think again and get busy with whatever their plans are. We live in the most beautiful part of the world and it's only a matter of time before our real estate prices are on the rise again... my humble opinion anyways!
Talk to you soon.
Paige