Briana bought a home in the Bay Area and shares what actually worked. She had earnest money ready, worked with a realtor she trusted, and networked hard. The market moves fast: listings disappear in days, cash buyers show up, and inspections get waived.
Questions this video answers
Four days (house listed Thursday; offers picked by Monday morning).
They closed five days early.
By the end of December.
Chapters
Were there any other pitfalls? Were there any surprises? Sounds like you. You prepped a lot. Way too much of me.
It was totally worth it, though. Such a stressful period. I was stressed, so I couldn't imagine having more stress by being ill prepared. But I think the biggest thing, like we even closed five days early, that's how much we got our stuff in. And the lender was on point and the realtor as well. The. I think the biggest thing hiccup or thing that I was surprised about was people not doing inspections and making offers. That threw me way off. I didn't think it was going to be that competitive. And also in the Bay Area, people offering cash outright for property really messed up the middle class that doesn't have that. And other big hurdle that I wasn't prepared for is, or thought I wouldn't be prepared for was having the. During the offer, that amount that you.
Want to your earnest money deposit.
Earnest money deposit deposit, yes. So when I listened to that episode, I set a little bit more aside so that we can do that. That really helped. And if I didn't have that, I think I would have been in trouble making an offer.
While you're saying all this stuff, as much as I'm getting excited that listeners are learning and they're going to avoid problems, I also just keep replaying in my head you talking about coming home to this place that makes you and the family so happy. So it's totally worth it.
It is. It really is.
For everybody who is getting ready to get out there. Remember, every market has. Has good things and bad things. You had to deal with a lot of competition. All that frustration you had during that competition, you still found the dream house. So the people right now are saying to me, this is so hard because interest rates went up and it costs more. It's never going to be perfect either. It's going to be cheap and everybody's going to be going after it or it's going to be a little bit more expensive. But the is, do your homework, get ready and then wait until you find it.
Definitely. And a lot of people expect perfect situations, right? But nothing's perfect, especially something worth fighting for. There's always going to be that thing that discourages you and, you know, getting offers denied was discouraging. But looking back, if I could tell myself that, you know, it just wasn't the right house. It just wasn't meant to be. Just keep preparing and keep strong. That would have really helped me reduce my stress because in reality, the time frames were so tight. This house went on the market on a Thursday and they wanted to pick an offer by Monday morning. So there was four days to get in. So if we did it right, we were going to be one of the few offers because people will come in and love the house, but they might not be as prepared as me. So really it puts me a leg up even from people who might have more money or not low contingency. It's because I got my documents in and was ready to buy this house. That really sets you apart in.
In those situations, you were ready to go all in. Thank God you had the extra couple grand. I mean, I've had people that have, you know, called the uncle they haven't talked to in 10 years. You know, when they get that perfect, I need 2500 bucks and then we'll pay you back in the next three months. But I just need to cover this little appraisal gap or whatever it is, you know.
Yeah, we could have waited three more months and looked, but we just, we knew we wanted the house by the end of December because the market was so volatile then and, you know, January rolls around and interest rates were at an all time low. So we wanted to not go in an apartment. And I think the biggest motivating factor was you in my head saying, don't waste money on rents like that. That is a forced savings account. Don't do it to yourself. And that really motivated me to. I mean, we didn't even buy Christmas presents. We got a little Charlie Brown tree and. Yeah, like we're going to do this.
Well, then you just, you just put some tinsel on yourself and run around the house. Here's our present. Here's our present.
That's exactly what my son did. He was 2, so he loved it. We had a. Of course, all our stuff was gone.
Man, that's going to be memories forever. If you prepare, you can get this perfect storm. Briana is talking about not only fighting the fight. I mean, think about it. What if one of those cash buyers hadn't come in on the house that you wanted that was, you know, a couple pegs below this one? It felt horrible at the time because you were prepared and you were ready to go. You know, you were ready to take something because it was going to be a forced savings account, but because you had all those options, you got the best of both worlds. Now everyone's going to think that everyone's going to be able to do this and they're going to call me up and be mad at Me. But the more you prepare, the better your chances.
Realistic. Like, if you're not ready, you're not ready, but when you are ready, you're prepared. You won't be disappointed.
I'm just so thrilled I could talk forever. But, you know, I. I know people probably want to stop doing the dishes or whatever they're doing while they're listening to us. Thank you for being so inspiring and really helping everybody understand. You know, when people tell me, this is so hard, I need to take a day off of work. Gang shoes in Germany, get over it. Okay.
But I understand the pain.
Yes. I love it.
Worth it. We already have equity built in the house, you know, and thank you so much for setting us up and taking the time to answer our emails and set us up with our unicorn real estate agent, because really, she. She made a difference. She. Trusting her and. And even trusting her with how much we wanted to offer and just jumping in the pool was everything, and it was just the right amount to establish a little equity. So we definitely don't regret any part of that journey at all.
There are all these articles coming out about all these new realtors that got in the game last year. A lot of my unicorn people are people that I have met over the years by going to these conferences all over the country. You know, I meet four or five hundred people a weekend. I'm only talking to about a dozen. I'm always thinking to myself, gosh, I wish I had somebody moving from my area who was gonna move to your town. And then I got the idea for the podcast a few years ago, so it's so exciting, because someone like you, who deserves it, that I can go, oh, my gosh, this person that. I never had anybody in my town move to your town, but now because of the podcast, I can say, I know someone awesome there.
Yeah, exactly. It's so nice. The networking is so important to help people, you know, and by you having those contacts and networking and your reach is so much further than just, you know, Southern California. So you're really doing a lot to help people and get people to a place in their life where they feel proud of something. You know, buying a house is such a big step in your life, and feeling that pride of being a homeowner is incomparable to anything, honestly.
Oh, that's fantastic. Oh, warm my heart. Thank you so much.
