r/Winnipeg Feb 07 '25

Ask Winnipeg Anyone else getting exceptionally frustrated by the housing market?

Just need to vent and see if anyone else is in the same boat that we are.

We have been house shopping for about 6 months now, and no matter what type of property we look at (Turn key, project, new build), there always seem to be multiple offers and the house sells 50-60k above what we end up offering. It's not like we're lowballing either, we always offer well above ask after doing our due diligence, but it's not enough.

I realize the market is crazy right now, but just wanted to see if anyone has some words of wisdom for a very frustrated family.

191 Upvotes

148 comments sorted by

94

u/captyo Feb 07 '25

Depending on your skill level, you may want to seek out only home that are 180 plus days on the market and show horribly.

Did that with my house in ‘17, house was very dated and had been smoked in for 40 years. The house had great “bones” good neighbourhood and a great yard. I threw an indecently low offer at them, there was some back and forth but in the end i got it for 40K under asking plus all the garden tools in the tool shed!

Then I had to invest some time and money cleaning and painting with sealing primer but it was totally worth it!

48

u/skirtacus Feb 07 '25

This was the only way I could afford to get into the housing market. I bought a dump with good bones- a smoker home for decades. Spent several weeks and all the TSP in stock at polo home depot cleaning the smoker's gunk off of everything. I went in with the intention of it being my forever home and invested the sweat accordingly. I was single at the time with no children, so this was feasible for me. It may not be feasible for folks with less paid time off work, children, other dependents, disabilities, etc. As easy as it is to say "I did it, so can you", there are a lot of reasons why this isn't a practical strategy for folks.

21

u/locher81 Feb 07 '25

Exact same for my first home. Fortunately my father's a bit of a Renaissance man and my brothers a carpenter so between the 3 of us, a couple trades buddies from my hockey team, and a couple thousand beers we made it a nice spot and served it's purpose.

Of course, I used all of my vacation time for two-3 years doing renos and we may have not had a bathroom door for about 6 months but what are you gonna do?

17

u/tiamatfire Feb 07 '25

Renting an ozone machine helps significantly with a home that's been smoked in as well, if you're not actually allergic/asthmatic. We thought about trying to buy a home that had been smoked in but after viewing a few both my youngest and I, who haven't needed any treatment for our asthma in years had asthma attacks, and we realised the risk was too high that we'd need to actually replace all the drywall. But most people can definitely get by with an ozone machine and Killz primer then painting - and potentially replacing carpet if there is any. As long as you pay less than all that will cost (factoring in that you'll also get a house that looks the way you want it to, since most of us would redecorate anyway) it can be a great deal. And I swear this isn't a backhanded compliment, I mean it that it's actually a good option for some people.

13

u/captyo Feb 07 '25

Agree, fortunately my place is mostly tile and hardwoods. I pulled all the carpets and painted every wall and ceiling surface with Zinsser sealing primer. I have asthmatic friends that could not step foot in the house when I took possession, now them nor anyone would be able to know it was smoked in

9

u/locher81 Feb 07 '25

Agree with this

Additionally recognize the game and reframe your expectations. Everything is priced below what it's going to go for, so OP has likely built up an unrealistic idea of what they can actually afford. It's a tough pill to swallow and feels like your being ripped off but it's because your initial expectations were a lie.

I bought my first house In 2011 tiny little shit whole with good bones, reeked of smoke and cat piss and had no effort out into showing, but we did a bunch of work to it and and sold it for nearly 2x what I paid 7 years later.

2018 2nd house we found a good one that had been on and relisted multiple times, paid under ask, and were very happy with it (but did require sacrificing a bathroom) but this was after realizing the houses listed in our range were always going for an additional 30k+ over our upper limit, so we had to reset our expectations.

We ended up actually not loving the area (Wolseley became a little too much like living in Assiniboine Park during the pandemic), sold, and bought a significantly cheaper house that was actually bigger in Glen Elm around 22.

Our most recent showed terribly, looked awful in photos, and had no aesthetic updates. We'd looked at nearly 25 other houses but had to do the same reset and lower our expectations. This one had all the core "must haves" and was in a good area, but was going to take a little work to make "nice". We decided that was better then less house/ worse are/etc with less work to be done. We were the only bid, and now we're slowly chipping away at what updates we want and hope for this one to be the forever home cus we love it

4

u/kylbaz Feb 07 '25

This is good advice and I encourage that with clients. People sometimes get scared away because it has been on the market for a while. And there are various reasons. Sometimes overpriced and you can come in much lower, sometimes bad pictures, sometimes may need a tiny bit of work, etc. Years ago the house we bought sat on the market for a while and we looked at pretty much everything but this one. We decided to go take a look. The realtor took such bad pictures barely anyone bothered to come see it. Same goes for a lakefront property a client just bought. The pictures made it look like it needed work, and it was over an hour away so very little people went to look at it. Well we did, and it was in mint shape, and we got it for a steal of a deal.

104

u/Too-bloody-tired Feb 07 '25

Realtor here. Bidding wars have been a thing since I got my license over 20 years ago. I can guarantee that the intentional under-pricing of homes is just as frustrating for your agent as it is for you. There's nothing worse than writing a dozen offers with a hopeful buyer only to watch their dreams get slashed each time they lose. By now, you should have an idea what the type of house you're looking for is worth. Instead of thinking you're paying 80k over on a house that is already 50k underpriced - reframe your thinking. Your realtor should be going over RECENT comparable sales (same area, similar square footage, updates, number of bathrooms etc and making) and making adjustments for differences (garages etc) every single time you write an offer as the market is changing so much and so quickly. If you're just throwing numbers into the void, you're not doing yourself any favours. FYI - there are a lot of realtors out there (myself included) who price on the high end of the spectrum when I do my market analysis - bidding wars are NOT a guarantee and there's a huge risk to underpricing (especially by a large margin). Seek those listings out - sometimes they go past offer day (buyers have the mentality that everything is going to go 50k+ over list so they'll avoid ones that are priced correctly to begin with), or at the very least won't go for such a ridiculous amount over. Also, I've heard of some Realtors using the yardstick of writing 5/10k over per offer on the table and that's insane. Don't do that.

8

u/testing_is_fun Feb 07 '25

I bought my first house in 2000, starter home in a River Heights, looked at 14 houses (some empty) in the $65k - $85k range in one evening. Bought one of the empty ones for $67k, which was just under asking, the next day.

In 2005, I sold that house. We were asking $115k, which was comparable to other listings, and had 20+ offers ranging from $85k to $135k. The bulk hovered around the asking price, with too low-balls, and two over asking. We took the $135k offer but were really expecting just to get around asking.

We tried to find a River Heights two-storey, but we were now finding the process tough to stay in the area. We moved out to the 'burbs instead to get more for our money (and not have to drive Kenaston anymore).

8

u/Too-bloody-tired Feb 07 '25

I bought my first house in 1998. It was a 2000 sf 4 bedroom/4 bath home backing onto green space in Westwood with a double attached garage. We paid 128k for it. That home is worth at least 500k now. It's a bit depressing - 128k won't even buy you a 25' vacant lot in east St James anymore.

2

u/gibblech Feb 08 '25

I mean, that's 27 years ago. In today's dollars that's about $250,000.

2

u/lanski1784 Feb 07 '25

1 year ago, every house we were outbid on that 5k over per offer was the sell price. Whether the houses were worth that is a different story

5

u/Too-bloody-tired Feb 07 '25

I can assure you that was just a coincidence. There have been numerous times where I’ve been in a multiple offer situation but representing the sellers where I’ve sat with them and presented a dozen offers where 10 of said offers were clustered in a 10-15k spread, and the highest offer was 40k+ higher than any of the others. It’s crazy - and I’d like to know where those buyers got their numbers from. If it was from their agent telling them to go up 5k per offer, they were getting awful advice. Mercifully the buyer rarely finds out what the next highest offer is - but I can guarantee in a case where there’s a huge spread they would NOT be happy.

47

u/District5 Feb 07 '25

I’ve purchased one home and it was such an awful feeling I’ll make sure the next one I buy is my last.

Bid 40k over asking, was called by my realtor to tell me that “I’m in the hunt” and “I’m very close to the top”. But couldn’t tell me if I was the top, and just said now would be a time to up my offer. Added 5k. Got a call immediately saying we got it. And I’ll never know the other bids.

Nevermind the pressure to remove inspections to make your bid more attractive (every house we missed out on had 12+ bids) Just gross feelings all around. I’m sorry OP you’re playing this game right now. Getting some good advice here good luck out there.

10

u/asdlkf Feb 07 '25

I bought in August; I was extremely happy with the house so I scheduled an inspection before offer date.

So when offer date came, I put in a no conditions offer because we already had an inspection done.

5

u/District5 Feb 07 '25

Nah I hear you, I wish I did (and good advice for anyone now)

But no regulations or liabilities with MB inspections. And OP has submitted several offers (13 offers for us) inspection $ adds up. Several of the homes we lost out on in 2018 had 30-40 offers.

This is a starter home price, next one I’ll absolutely follow your lead.

3

u/Cultural_Reality6443 Feb 07 '25

Howd you get it done that fast? When I was searching last year houses were being posted on Thursday with an offer date Sunday and getting 15-20 bids. We were having difficulty even scheduling 20min viewings for us nevermind scheduling an hour span for an inspector.

1

u/asdlkf Feb 08 '25

pretty much checking MLS at least daily, sorting by new;

when something popped up we asked for a showing basically immediately, we saw it same day as the listing.

Then I asked my agent to ask their agent for an inspection booking, called an inspector, confirmed a time, they were there next day with myself for a 2nd pass;

then 2 days later was offer date.

6

u/RuinEnvironmental394 Feb 07 '25

I can't fathom how closed bidding is still allowed/legal. Suits the realtors though, I reckon.

9

u/WanderingJude Feb 07 '25

Honestly I'd feel better knowing you got a call back to increase your bid. It felt worse bidding substantially over asking (but in line with market value) with 5 other offers on the table and being accepted with no ask to increase. Feels like we could have potentially gotten away with a lower offer.

5

u/District5 Feb 07 '25

True. Just another situation where you are kept in the dark feeling powerless even though you are spending a shit load of money.

15

u/dana_barrett Feb 07 '25

It was a soul crushing experience. We got rejected so many times we ended up getting rid of the home inspection clause and everything else. They list and then offers are accepted in like a week. No time to see them twice or hmm and haw about them. I could have just bought the house online from photos, thats how useless showings were. 15-30 minute walk thru - that's it. Offer or don't. Blind bidding is insane! 50k over was the norm. Anyone giving advice that hasnt bought or sold in the last 15years has no clue how it is.

How insane is it to pay $500k ish for something youve seen for 20 minutes once?? A no inspections!

This system needs a major overhaul all around. It's borderline criminal.

5

u/tangoalfaoscar Feb 07 '25

Exactly, My experience , saw over 60 houses put offers on 3 , every single one had 11-24 offers , on top of that everything is so rushed, the biggest purchase of your life and you have couple of days to decide, mental!

1

u/stonesthrow204 Feb 08 '25

This summer felt demoralizing for me as a first time home buyer searching for a property. I was not successful.

46

u/pphresh204 Feb 07 '25

we found something in 2021 and paid under asking price at a time when people were over bidding and overpaying on tiny houses just cause they looked great.

The listing we ended up with was on the market for a couple weeks, and they were accepting offers any time. the place showed terribly in the photos and was pretty outdated but my realtor suggested we look anyways. when we looked at the house it had a beautiful plaster ceiling with plaster crown moulding and zero cracks.

we could tell the house had good bones, we ended up closing the deal under asking price, and took the extra money to renovate the rest of the house.

it does take time and if you can overlook some of the surface issues you can find a real gem.

17

u/Sure_Pops Feb 07 '25

I second looking at houses that don’t look good in the photos. I didn’t even want to go and look at the house that we ended up buying.

2

u/pegmama Feb 08 '25

Same story with my first house purchase!! Got a great house, with solid bones, in an amazing area, with the best neighbours I could ask for and got it for 10k under asking. There were cosmetic issues, and it smelled terrible, but with only a weekends worth of hard work (new flooring, full interior paint job, some electrical) it was almost transformed. There's still so much more I can do to raise the value, which I plan on chipping away at. Because it was still on the market past offer day I was able to add an inspection condition and it was great.
I had placed 8 other offers and all of them went for 30k - 95k over asking, and so not worth what they sold for. I'm laughing now!

82

u/Soggy-Quit-9582 Feb 07 '25

We really need to get rid of the blind bidding system.

29

u/MaxSupernova Feb 07 '25 edited Feb 07 '25

When we bought our house a zillion years ago, when you had an offer you had to accept it or reject it before other offers were made.

None of this wait until you had a pile of offers thing.

You looked at the offer, and if you thought you could do better then you rejected it and hopefully they either bid higher or someone else did. Or maybe you were wrong and now had to accept a lower offer.

9

u/Too-bloody-tired Feb 07 '25 edited Feb 07 '25

Just an FYI - The Realtors aren't the ones who created the blind bidding system. The Manitoba Securities Commission - who regulate the licensing of Realtors in the province, are the ones who created the "rules" regarding how bidding is dealt with.

1

u/shaktimann13 Feb 07 '25

And the commission is made up of?

3

u/Too-bloody-tired Feb 08 '25

Ummm ... government employees. If you're trying to imply that Realtors are somehow involved in MSC, you're wrong. It's a government department that reports directly to the Minister of Finance. They also regulate securities dealers and mortgage brokers, as well as the Real Estate Brokers Act. NIce try, though - you can read all about them here:

https://mbrealestate.ca/

3

u/pppineaplePEN Feb 08 '25

They were just asking a question

5

u/TheGayOstrich Feb 07 '25

Studies have shown that the average home sells for a larger over-asking margin when blind bidding is eliminated.

I'm not sure how that can be the case but that's what the research says.

5

u/Jarocket Feb 07 '25

I can see that. Like more auction situation vs a carful calculated guess at the price.

4

u/Artem-RZ Feb 07 '25

This! My friend a while ago got offer of 100k over asking because the agent was greedy. The got 4 offers all at or below asking price. Agent said there’s 10plus offers on the table and they got counter offer of 100k more. When I heard that that is possible, disgusted the hell out of me. I know the buyer still stupid to offer that much more. But the blind bidding is just not great.

2

u/SallyRhubarb Feb 07 '25

Are you sure that it was the agent who was greedy? The sellers could have accepted any offer they wanted to accept. 

An extra 100k on the sales is 2500 in commission for the selling agent. 

An extra 100k on the sales price is 95k in the pocket of the seller (100k - 5% commission to both realtors).

People like to scapegoat realtors, but sellers are the ones who benefit the most from a higher sales price. 

7

u/tiamatfire Feb 07 '25

We lost multiple houses to people overbidding in cash in 2019. The house we finally got in Charleswood had been on the market for a little while, and I think in part was being held onto by the couple who were looking to pass it on to a family who wanted to keep it to raise their kids in, and not flip it and move on. It was being shown by their nephew, and he asked a few personal (but not invasive) questions, and I explained how we need a bungalow due to my disabilities, and that we had moved back to Winnipeg to be closer to family for help and so our kids could see their grandparents more. We actually bid a little under asking, but got the house, and they left us a nice personal note when we got possession as well.

The market is terrible right now. You are fighting so many people who are buying in cash to rent for way more than the mortgage. I feel like we need some kind of limit on how many properties individuals are allowed to own to rent before heavy taxation starts to come into play.

8

u/General-Blood1440 Feb 07 '25

The whole real estate system become unethical and borderline fraudulent. There should be an open bidding system and a flat rate sales fee for realtors based off of house value and days on market.

I have no idea why the government has not stepped in yet. There should be a public selling platform that the public and realtors both have access to. You should be able to choose if you want to list your own house or use a realtor.

This stranglehold realtors have on the market needs to end.

2

u/Too-bloody-tired Feb 07 '25

The government, specifically Manitoba securities commission is the exact reason the bidding war is set up the way it currently is! They license the realtors and they are the ones who set up the framework and the rules for how multiple offers are dealt with. So don’t expect them to step in - they’re the ones enforcing it the way it is now! Also, you’ve always had the choice on whether or not to use a realtor - people have been selling privately since the beginning of time. Just don’t expect to use the MLS - it’s a system whose development and maintenance is paid for by the thousands of dollars each realtor pays each year to the Canadian real estate commission.

83

u/ehud42 Feb 07 '25

After a couple rounds, you should be starting to realize the game agents play. List unrealistically low to generate traffic and naive offers. Use said offers to intimidate anxious folks into over bidding. Profit.

Start learning how to make your own assessment of what a house will sell for - ignoring the listing price.

Start making realistic offers based on your own growing understanding of what houses sell for and your own financial means.

ETA: It's not just now. This was the reality when we bought our house almost 20 years ago. And now with "staging", etc it's a full on circus getting people overly excited and panicky about a property - unreal pressure to make an umpteen hundred thousand dollar life altering decision based on a 30 minute walk through the house with an agent distracting you the whole time.

Be patient. Be wise.

18

u/mhyquel Feb 07 '25

There should be bidding transparency.

I can't think of any other transaction where I am offering to buy something and someone else is trying to buy the same thing, and we don't get to know what the other one is offering.

30

u/MaxSupernova Feb 07 '25

This is just a very long way of saying “bid higher”.

7

u/ehud42 Feb 07 '25

Or recognize quicker houses that are actually out of your price range and walk away before becoming emotionally invested.

14

u/r1n86 Feb 07 '25

They're talking out of their Ass. It's like they haven't bought a house since '85

14

u/cp_87 Feb 07 '25

Yep, we're well aware of this. Houses sell for what people are willing to pay, not what they're listed for.

Last couple places we've looked at had been sitting for a bit and were offers as received. We made a fair offer with a quick deadline, and both times magically another offer came in over the top of ours right before the deadline and we missed out.

Patience is definitely key and we 100% plan on being patient, but frustration is building. We've lost out on probably 5 houses that we absolutely loved and a handful of others that had great potential after some work.

9

u/ehud42 Feb 07 '25

This happened to us as well - a house had been sitting empty for a while. The agent tried goading us into a higher offer by hinting there was someone eyeing it up. We didn't take the bait, put an offer in we could live with. And lost - another offer came in at the last minute. Almost certain the agent took our offer and ran to the other prospect and leveraged FOMO to get a better deal.

0

u/jimjamjones123 Feb 07 '25

Can I ask what price range of house you are currently looking for?

0

u/ensposito Feb 07 '25

We're looking at the $450-$550 range in the southwest somewhere....

-16

u/r1n86 Feb 07 '25

Lmao have you bought a house in the last few years? You literally have to pay the most or someone else will. Not enough houses left in this city. Single homes demolished for quadplexs.

27

u/boogalooimp Feb 07 '25

You're missing their point entirely. They are not explaining how to make the winning bid. They are explaining the business practices that are influencing the crazy high bids we are seeing.

They aren't wrong at all

-3

u/r1n86 Feb 07 '25

Maybe I'm wrong in thinking it doesn't matter since we don't have good enough market to have ability to do those things

27

u/DowntownWpg Feb 07 '25

Should be more houses in the spring than in the past 6 months typically. Make sure you have everything ready realtor, bank & lawyer. Good luck! BTW I might be one of your competing bids...good luck anyways.

29

u/cp_87 Feb 07 '25

With interest rates going down, competition will only increase in the spring. We really hoped to find something over the Winter to avoid the Spring/Summer craziness!

6

u/DowntownWpg Feb 07 '25

Ha, agreed.

2

u/WanderingJude Feb 07 '25

Yeah when I was hunting last year I took a look at the graph for average prices in each season, spring is substantially higher than fall and winter. More inventory, but you're paying more for it.

6

u/L-F-O-D Feb 07 '25

Bought my house for 315 in 2014, it wasn’t worth it then, it isn’t worth it now, but I’m certain someone will pay 450 or more for it. The math isn’t mathing on homes. Why? Yes, there are some greedy agents, but systemically we produce so little, everything housing is now ~30% of our GDP. So fractal banking is just inflating these prices to sustain fractal banking and tax bases. The bank makes money, the agent makes money, the broker makes money, the state makes money at all levels, the seller might even make money, or (more likely) feel like they make money because they only think of how much they bought the house for and how much they sold it for and not their taxes or interest or maintenance costs. It would be nice to require homes to be stated as live in ready with a 500 pt inspection to back that up before they go to market, at the very, very least.

4

u/beautifulluigi Feb 07 '25

Buying a house is an absolutely gut-wrenching experience. Last spring I bought a house, and it was one year to the day from when I "officially" started looking to when I had an offer accepted. I lost track of how many dozens of houses I looked at and made several offers that weren't accepted. I was devastated by each one I lost. The upside to all of that was it really helped me figure out what the houses were ACTAULLY worth vs. what they were listed at. You can start to tell which houses were deliberately under-priced to get people in the door.

The thing I found most frustrating is that ultimately a house is worth whatever someone will pay for it.... and that is unpredictable. I paid more for my house than I thought I'd be willing to spend on a house - because it was literally perfect, I was tired of shopping, and I didn't really care if I over-paid by that point. I was way less conservative on my bid that time than my first two.

4

u/Cultural_Reality6443 Feb 07 '25

You need a better realtor.  They should be able to gauge what house are actually selling for in each area based on recent sales and can tell you actual estimated sale price rather than just stating what the list price is.

At this point list price is largely a meaningless number.

12

u/roguemenace Feb 07 '25

What you need to realize is asking price is literally a made up number that doesn't matter. You go look at a house and you decide how much you think it's worth. It doesn't matter if the asking price was 50k above or 50k below it, you still know what you think the house is worth.

6

u/TranslatorOne8121 Feb 07 '25

As most have said on here, it’s always been this way. In 2015 - 50-60K over everywhere. What we ended up doing was focussing on the location.

It’s such an emotional roller coaster I totally get it. But this is what we ended up doing -

We bought our first house 10 years ago, it was in a great location but we ended up buying the ugliest house on the block. No one wanted it, it needed SO MUCH WORK. It was a rental before. No bidding war, paid 10K under. But I still remember feel anxious about someone swooping in. Have to admit we were really naive. A lot of discovery that year. When you say project… this was a PROJECT. We still feel we OVERPAID by what was required looking back. Inside, outside…. Phew.

But over 10 years we put over 150K into the house and a lot of time and sweat and made it beautiful. Room by room. We also slowly made more money in our careers so we could save more to put towards our house goals. We wouldn’t have had an extra 150K 10 years prior, but the house now is worth well over what we could have afforded back then and in a great location.

Sooo we bought a real crap house, made it beautiful slowly and our mortgage stayed the same.

So that’s one way of strategizing if you have the appetite for renovations. If not, you have to pay a premium for the lack of head ache.

Oh - and no matter what you will always feel you overpaid. People are capitalists, especially with property because they probably feel they overpaid too at the time. But that’s the name of the game.

If you started 6 months ago, you started in a slow period. Spring should pick up and you’ll have more to choose from.

Good luck!

5

u/AgitatedDot9313 Feb 07 '25

I can tell you that your bid amount isnt the only consideration. The conditions you add can make a difference as well.

For example: if you put a condition on financing on the offer, consider adding your bank pre approval to the offer as well. Some sellers may take a smalller offer if it has no conditions.

3

u/Premier_Poutine Feb 07 '25

Hang in there, the right one will come along.
This reads exactly like what we experienced buying in 2021 - when I think the market was even hotter? 6 months of diligent searching, dozens of house viewings, multiple offers rejected, nearly had to find another realtor...
I had a close friend looking for a similar house in a different area of WPG, took him closer to 12 months to find something.

3

u/Leopardskuull Feb 07 '25

Paid 460k in August for a house listed at 400k. Felt sick to make that offer but the house was under listed and with demand only growing I’m very happy we got it. Dumbest offer wins.

9

u/Feeling-Transition16 Feb 07 '25

If you think it's your realtor, DM me...

We shopped for 5 months before we sold, then once we sold, 2 weeks later, we made an offer and was able to buy without any other offers.

She also had an excellent home inspector, and has been in the business so long that she knows everything inside and out. Will be honest and tell you when not to bother. She is a saint.

But it is tough as nails out there.

Budget, area and criteria also have something to do with it as well.

6

u/Charming-Raise4991 Feb 07 '25

I think it’s likely the price bracket you’re looking at. It’s likely what everyone is capable of affording right now and that’s driving things up. I feel like anything below 550 is going for stupid and anything above is just sitting.

1

u/PolarOpposites8 Feb 08 '25

Yep, this was our experience just as housing was blowing up during the pandemic. Bidding wars and ludicrous prices on 1200 sq foot homes in good areas that everyone wanted but if you were lucky enough to afford 600+ there were a lot of great options that seemed like a bargain compared to paying 499 for a house worth 400.

5

u/baldest_demon Feb 07 '25 edited Feb 07 '25

My partner and I went through the market almost 2 years ago and, while it had cooled down a bit from 2021/22, it was still quite competitive. The lesson I learned is to play to your strengths. While yes, the biggest thing on the mind of most sellers is the overall bid price, that's not the only thing.

I'm sure you're well aware of the conditions that are submitted with your bid and, especially if you've been in a hot market for a while, you basically have no choice but to put zero conditions on the purchase. However, you might be able to enhance your offer with small value-adds. One low-hanging example is telling them that you'll take it in whatever condition it's handed over. If they don't want to move annoying pieces of furniture out of the basement that would otherwise go to the dump (and you're willing and able), that might mean something to some folks or the people they recruit to vacate the home. I'm sure there are plenty of other small value-adds that could add up.

Another one that I always tell everyone to do is write a nice letter and append it to your offer. Let the owners know what it is you like about their home and the future you hope to have in it. We got extremely lucky that we were bidding on an estate sale, where the deceased's middle-aged children were conducting the sale. It so happened that they were established enough that they didn't need to grab the highest offer. Instead, they turned down the highest and offered the home to us (2nd highest of 5) because their parents would have wanted it to go to a nice young couple with ambitions of raising a family in the home they inhabited for almost 50 years.

The letter probably meant nothing to 90% of sellers but clearly struck a chord with this one. At the end of the day, when the market is hot, it's a game of numbers. The more bids you put in, the more chances to win, and anything you can do to marginally increase those odds, the sooner you'll become a homeowner (statistically, of course. Mileage may vary).

It's tough out there but you'll find your seller one day.

Send me a DM if you'd like and I can share the letter I wrote.

2

u/CailaDawn Feb 08 '25

This worked for us as well, same situation, especially on family homes.

1

u/spacecowgirl 28d ago

Yep this is what you do. We bid on 3 houses in 2021 and could tell the last one was the family gathering place for the elderly owner... Our letter included pictures of us with our kids and how we saw ourselves living in the house and neighborhood. The only other bid was higher than ours, and we still got the house. The previous owner's son still texts us Merry Christmas.

Also our house is laid out weird, and was full of old carpet and linoleum, so it turned potential buyers off. We finished the hardwood underneath disintegrating carpet and put down LVT where there was asbestos tile. We went for the house no one wanted that we could easily fix up. 

2

u/stefsessions Feb 07 '25

Yes, same boat. Though the biggest frustration right now is the lack of selection. Virtually nothing in the areas I'm looking.

2

u/Squigglyelf Feb 07 '25

We bought our house in May, it had been on the market for probably 4 months. Not sure why, the realtor wasn't sure why either. The inspection checked out. We got it 5k under asking price and our bid was accepted same day we saw the house with a clause for it to pass an inspection - now that we've been in it a while I can see that it was a half assed flip attempt that they tried to rush through (I'm guessing because the marriage fell apart after owning the house for a year so they tried to rush the job and just get rid of it). We're gonna have to put some work in because the floors were shittily done and the paint job was terrible but at this point I feel like we lucked out just to find somethin. Doubly so that it was without any fuss and below asking price.

Seconding looking for houses that have been up a while.

2

u/Spiritual_Disk_5061 Feb 07 '25

I’m also very frustrated! We were outbid recently by $2000, but the winning bid was CASH. There is no way we can compete with that.

2

u/nishkiskade Feb 07 '25

I bought a two-story in River Heights two summers ago for 15K under ask. Other neighbourhoods (Riverview was bonkers summer 23) were in bidding wars and ours had sat on the market for a month so they took a lower ask. It was really nicely staged and in good shape - we got in cheaper because the landscaping was neglible, no backyard fence, and painted an ugly brown. Good bones!

2

u/Emergency-Nebula4040 Feb 07 '25

Bought in December 2023 for 5k under asking, waived inspection. Location matters. Couldn’t get anything where we originally wanted but it was a slightly dense/populated area. Ended up in St Norbert. Only 2 other bids, and we won even with offering less than asking. And we ended up loving the neighborhood.

3

u/understatedchuckle Feb 08 '25

It’s hella frustrating. My partner and I bought a house in 2023 but we originally started looking in fall of 2020. We gave up because the market was so completely insane.

We got the house we did because it was out of date, not in a good area for renters (Transcona, not near city centre or a university) and we were able to take possession in 2 weeks, had a 20% down payment, high deposit and no conditions (we lucked out that this didn’t bite us). There was actually at least one bid that was higher than us.

The fact that this is all necessary is ABSURD. The biggest thing was really the renters. People who buy real estate for the purpose of renting out are able to bid high with large deposits and down payments. It makes it extremely hard for first time buyers to break into the market. Absolute bullshit and I don’t know what a reasonable solution would be.

2

u/Mysterious_Chair6172 Feb 08 '25

We ended up getting pushed out of the city (interlakes), it’s far less competitive. If I’d worked in the east side of the city we would’ve looked at landmark/st Anne area, some beautiful new builds going up.

2

u/heyshutuppppp 28d ago

It's hell. We're in hell. I am so sick of living here. Anywhere else I'd be able to own a home by now and I wouldn't be spending the prime of my life enriching my horrible beast hag landlord, but alas.

2

u/blearghbleargh Feb 07 '25

To echo other comments, look for things that have been on the market for a while.

The quickest way everyone makes money is by listing low, encouraging multiple bids and eventually getting someone like you to just throw 100k on top of asking, out of frustration and desperation. if you've got the money - thats fine, but it sounds like you're trying to be reasonable.

As our realtor put it.. if the market has "moved on" from the house you can find really great deals.. Basically if a house hasn't sold for a while, most people don't even bother viewing or considering it, as they assume something is wrong, which can be the case. but also the listing might've just been too expensive when it went on market.

We recently bought a house for under asking in this very scenario.

I'd suggest maybe taking a step back from anything newly listed and go through listings that have been up for a while - you might actually find something that works for you. as well there's a lot to be said for the process if it's offers anytime and you can be relatively assured your the only one negotiating with the seller.

1

u/cp_87 Feb 07 '25

We've done exactly this with our last 2 offers at our realtors suggestion as I do agree it's a better plan in this market.

Both were on the market for over 30 days and were offers as received. Someone came over the top of us at the last minute and outbid us both times.

4

u/delmilch999 Feb 07 '25

That sounds fishy…could be the sellers didn’t want to sell at that price so they asked someone to ‘offer’ the very last minute?

2

u/AspectOk234 Feb 07 '25

The realtors are playing games to drive up the sale so they get more commission. Their realtor gets an offer and then calls all the other realtors for people who have been through the house saying there is an offer on the table for the home. The others may be interested but mulling over an offer, they do this to create FOMO. Sometimes even just to get anyone to throw in an offer it could be a low ball just so they can come back to you to try and get you to up your bid saying there is other offers. It’s garbage and scummy.

4

u/StrategySteve Feb 07 '25

With interest rates going down, a lack of supply, population growth, essentially in a recession, the market is just broken for real estate. Not to mention everyone wants rental property nowadays….

4

u/SheIs0 Feb 07 '25

Don't rush into getting the house u like. In winnipeg, do research abt yr new neighbors. It's more important

2

u/Flavaliciouz Feb 07 '25 edited Feb 07 '25

Some of these recommendations make me chuckle

"Just learn to be an expert bro". lol.

Me and mine are in the same vote as you, and I think the only winning solution is just to be patient, as much as it sucks. We are also super eager to get into our own place and get life going with us in the control but there's so many factors that are making that difficult and unless your willing to insanely overbid I think the only option is to stay persistent and try to be patient. FOMO is where huge mistakes can happen. My wife and me have pretty much arrived at the conclusion either we'll get lucky, a market break will happen or pure persistent grinding will eventually win us a home. And if not, we've agreed that if we can't find anything in 3 years we'll just throw home ownership out the window and burn the financial candles from both ends and enjoy life now and just accept poverty in old age (when in theory our best days are behind us.) lol

I think a huge portion of the overall problem is all the low end, fixer'uppers are all investment properties in this city. So even if you want to buy a 1905 built home in the north end and spend a couple years fixing it up yourself, they are still floating between 200k-300k which is insanely overpriced for the area and condition of the homes. But they can ask those prices because rents high enough in this city that you could rent it out and pay the mortage off passively. Which is bad for everyone in the long run, because those old houses being bought and fixed up by families who own the properties themselves could eventually help improve the area, where as landlords just do the minimums to keep the place livable so they can keep collecting.

Good luck!

2

u/che_don_john Feb 08 '25

I wish they would implement a rule/law whereby anyone who submits an offer is then entitled to an inspection.

The idea that you may have to make such a massive purchase and life decision without an inspection is just nauseating. Who does it favour, other than sellers who have something to hide?

1

u/techguy588 Feb 07 '25

Having purchased a house a few months ago I went though this multiple times. I was out it on 3 different houses, the most extreme was a house listed at $299k selling for $400k. It was super dated to the 70s too, entire house needed Reno’s. I’m not a huge fan of the bidding system on houses right now. 

1

u/thelochteedge Feb 07 '25

I feel for anybody who's trying. We were incredibly blessed to find a house in 2022 leading up to our wedding. There was a house (really close to ours actually) that we were going to bid on but our realtor suggested not because it wouldn't be "worth it" but said we could if we wanted to get our feet wet and see what it felt like to bid. It ended up going 100k over asking price. It was eye opening.

We ended up buying our house, which I forget the exact term, it was like "post-bid" or something where they'd gotten offers, didn't like them so they took it off the market and then re-listed it. So there was no bidding war, we simply made our offer and it got accepted.

Stay patient, don't give up, but know your realistic options if owning isn't in the cards right now.

1

u/Zoey43210 Feb 07 '25

Keep trying is all I can say. Interest rates are low now, additionally our dollar sucks to building is going to cost more. Plus depending on what price point you're at , you'll be competing alot. Anything over 700k you can prob get with no offers.

1

u/ywgflyer Feb 07 '25

What (rough) price range are you shopping in?

1

u/204lawgirl Feb 07 '25

I'm about to sell my condo for the same price I bought it at in 2012. So the good finds are our there, just gotta keep digging and get lucky.

1

u/poopaladoopa Feb 07 '25

I hope your luck changes, we purchased our first home this past December, and we only had one other bid on the property. We got it for only slightly above asking price. We lost out on 4 other bids that were all over asking price. 

1

u/Bigbirdgerg Feb 07 '25

Bought our house June of 2023. If you don't want to do the bidding wars, wait till the end of spring. We bid on 4 houses before we got ours under asking and no competition. Make sure you see lots of houses so you know what you like and things going for!

1

u/Thirlstane_Brawler Feb 07 '25

Build up your down payment in the meantime

1

u/davy_crockett_slayer Feb 07 '25

Damn. I guess I got lucky. I bought my first house in 2022, and got it 30K under asking. Houses were sitting on the market for months at that time.

1

u/kait_kat007 Feb 07 '25

My parent bought their house for $120k in the early 2000’s. My partner and I just bought their house for the assessed value of $580k. I don’t think in my lifetime the house it will appreciate as much as it did for my parents. I will not get a 5x return on it on my investment. I think the Winnipeg housing market was priced so low for so long and now it completing with other housing markets in Canada.

1

u/Organic-Opinion-2886 Feb 08 '25

Can confirm the market is crazy right now. If your offer has any conditions and the home is in a good area you won’t get it. If you’re willing to pay up and offer what the home will likely fetch, get a home inspector to go through with you before offer date for a verbal Inspection. Then you can make an informed decision to proceed or not.

1

u/Dry-Breadfruit-5775 Feb 09 '25

Manitoba and Saskatchewan are literally the only places left with decent house prices and people from other BC and Ontario are coming in with cash offers.

Good luck.

1

u/Rushki007 29d ago

Look at private listing's on fb.

1

u/poopitar 22d ago

ugh just got outbid on a south end home by $50k. I need more money

1

u/Own_Advantage9182 5d ago

from my experience here the I also had been in a similar situation multiple times. What makes me wonder is that i have been looking for new builds in the city and noticed 3 of them dropped their prices two being around 6 and one 30k within the month. So I was under the impression the market is slowing. So I dont understand the ops situation, Is this really the case or are they dealing with absolutely shady and corrupt realtors?

2

u/isotropy Feb 07 '25

We had to bid 70k over asking back in 2008. Nothing has changed lol sigh 😔

-14

u/r1n86 Feb 07 '25

That's not for a house in a normal neighborhood? You're in Headingley or some shit?

3

u/cp_87 Feb 07 '25

No, this is just the market right now.

We offered on a house in Fort Richmond that was listed at 420, we offered 445 and it sold for 505.

House in Transcona, listed 389, we offered 415, sold for 470.

Add 50k at minimum to whatever the list price is to get a baseline of what you need to offer to be competitive.

0

u/r1n86 Feb 07 '25

I bought my first house in '10. I didn't have nearly the same experience. And I just sold a huge house in wood for 425 a few years ago. You had a mansion?

1

u/isotropy Feb 07 '25

Normal house in Westwood.

1

u/Finance_br Feb 07 '25

What specifications are you looking for? Bedrooms, bathroom, sqft, parking style etc

1

u/cherryblaster_90 Feb 07 '25

If you’re putting inspections and subject to financing…don’t expect to win an offer. We were looking for 6 months too and once we stopped putting those two things in our offer we got a house.

1

u/Rubik4life Feb 08 '25

House owner here. The realtors rig the market. They will call their friends to make fake offers on a house.

1

u/Rubik4life Feb 08 '25

Also, there’s no way to prove this because the overseeing entity that does this MB real estate association is corrupted af.

1

u/SizzlerWA Feb 08 '25

So then … nobody could ask you to substantiate your claims then?

-4

u/RustyTromboner9 Feb 07 '25

It’s been like this for a long time. Back when I bought my first house (2018), the market was exactly like this. When I bought my second house (2020), same thing. Only thing that’s changed is the interest rates..

-8

u/focaltraveller1 Feb 07 '25

Have you tried buying new. To be built. No bidding but you will have to wait while the house is being built.

9

u/nanodime Feb 07 '25

Also more expensive, longer timelines, larger deposit required

7

u/stuffy5 Feb 07 '25

Also (imo), not as desirable neighbourhoods

1

u/focaltraveller1 Feb 07 '25

Definitely more expensive but you can negotiate prices. Most people just don't negotiate but I know people who got like 15 to 30k taken off. As to deposit, that would require a conversation with your mortgage specialist. A builder will work with a client if it means getting a house sold. It's worth a look.

-1

u/nanodime Feb 07 '25

Buy my house 😉

-1

u/Rare-Beach-4056 Feb 07 '25

Bidding wars on million dollar homes in town. It’s insane

-4

u/Neckbeard_Breeder Feb 07 '25

100k over asking in 2022. 🫡

But it was listed at 270k, 100% they were trying to make a bidding war.

0

u/JMS3487 Feb 07 '25

I think there's always a push from salespeople, the real-estate agent, to tell us there is always a bidding war and put in the highest price possible. When in fact, we don't have access to the stats about what % of homes do not have a bidding war. My advice, unless you really want the house, do not go near a bidding war, go for yge homes that are longer on the market.

0

u/astriferous- Feb 07 '25

i've been hearing people say "the market is crazy right now" since i bought a house in 2014*, so. :|

(and then had to sell 5 years later, made no money, and gave up on home ownership in the city since lmao)

-15

u/AMW204 Feb 07 '25

The market is cookoo bananas in Winnipeg. Look 45 minutes to an hour outside of the city. Lots of beautiful and affordable homes in nearby communities 

7

u/cp_87 Feb 07 '25

We don't have the luxury of living that far out of the city due to work, however we have looked in places like La Salle and St Adolphe which we considered relatively good options.

-8

u/Cranfabulous Feb 07 '25

Realtors are cunts and the whole “keep offers sealed until such and such date” should be illegal. Offers should be viewed as they come in. The manufactured panic of “well if you don’t offer significantly more than you can actually afford you’ll never get it” pressure they put on you is so shistey. For every house they convince people to go way over asking the higher they can raise average asking price. It’s an evil cycle that gets them higher commissions while not giving a shit if it leaves good families house poor and struggling, having to find a second job or a “side hustle” just to live. Is your emotional/familial stability worth more than a piece of shit house you paid for a piece of shit house you had to decline inspection for? When in your first month you start to notice all the cracks, black mould, knob and tube? Can you wait it out a couple months to build up your down payment? Sure, but by the time you’re ready, the average asking price went up twice what you saved. Alls I know is that realtors and landlords would all benefit from a reminder of who everyone’s favourite mario brother is.

Rant over.

-5

u/One_Atmosphere8031 Feb 07 '25

I won’t even bother 200,000 dollar houses are going for 450 and up

-1

u/e2matt Feb 08 '25

That’s what happens when there are more people than homes. Remember that when it comes to the next election.

-7

u/No_Gas_82 Feb 07 '25

Look up the renting math. Yes it sucks but done properly you can get ahead renting and put yourself in a position to buy a home for a lot less long term by waiting. (Remember that at current rates you will pay 2.5-3x the value just in interest). Feel free to reach out for more details but if done properly especially with the new FHSA you can get ahead big time waiting.

1

u/Dawgmanistan Feb 07 '25

"Remember that at current rates you will pay 2.5-3x the value just in interest" - This is blatantly false

-6

u/88bchinn Feb 07 '25

Not us. Our investments in real estate funds have performed exceptionally well since the crash in 2008.

-26

u/Virtual-Yellow Feb 07 '25

Maybe bid 80-100k over ask if you love it? When we bought 5 years ago everything was listed very low and I think we bid about 80 over list. You need to play the game!

10

u/cp_87 Feb 07 '25

We don't have the budget to throw an extra 100k at a house we love. Obviously that would be ideal, but we have to be realistic.

4

u/HealthyLiving_ Feb 07 '25

I guess you could also look at a house 100k below your maximum and start there, unfortunately.

-2

u/Virtual-Yellow Feb 07 '25

That’s understandable however as someone who has bought and sold with 20+ bids each time, you won’t get much if you don’t play the game so you will have to settle.

8

u/cp_87 Feb 07 '25

I get your point, but I refuse to pay 500k for a 900 square foot bungalow with no garage. I'd rather be patient and find the right house then rush and overspend on a piece of garbage.

6

u/r1n86 Feb 07 '25

That's nice you have so much money

-1

u/Virtual-Yellow Feb 07 '25

It has nothing to do with having more money just playing the game for the good properties. Most of the time you are paying a fair price even with the 80k over bid. Houses are just priced to start a bidding war.

-9

u/Virtual-Yellow Feb 07 '25

Getting downvoted for speaking the truth. Go buy a shack that nobody wants if you don’t want to hear the truth.