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A slower market doesn’t mean an easy market: What to know about buying a home today

While sales and prices have declined, the Dallas-Fort Worth market is still heavily in sellers’ favor.

Facing soaring costs of renting a house in McKinney, Thelma and Joel Ocampo finally purchased their first home together in March.

Thelma, 45, and Joel, 44, bought a five-bedroom home in Princeton’s Trails at Riverstone neighborhood. Thelma, a first-time homebuyer, is an office manager in Anna and Joel works for a television station in Dallas, braving a long commute.

“We just decided to go for it,” Joel said.

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There are fewer transactions taking place in Dallas-Fort Worth than a year ago after a surge in mortgage rates spurred by the Federal Reserve, but there is still a significant shortage of homes available for sale that is driving a strong seller’s market.

While the market is not as competitive, the region has just two months of available inventory for sale, tilting the market against buyers like the Ocampos.

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“They were patient, but they knew what they wanted,” said their real estate agent, Patty Sheets of Coldwell Banker Realty’s Flower Mound office.

Even though the couple started looking in January when the market is typically slower, they faced many of the same hurdles buyers experienced a year ago when the market was red-hot. They found themselves having to compete with other buyers when making offers and struggled to find a home in their price range in the area they wanted.

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“There’s a couple of times where I just wanted to give up,” Thelma said, but she would tell other buyers not to get discouraged. “There will be a house out there.”

The Dallas Morning News spoke with the Ocampos as well as real estate agents throughout North Texas about what they would tell potential homebuyers to help them get ahead in the still-busy market.

Get ready to compete

Agents say many homes are still seeing multiple offers from interested buyers — just not the dozens of bids on a single home as was often seen last year — and that buyers are not having to pay as much over the asking price in competitive situations.

Homes in popular neighborhoods that don’t require much fixing up and are well-priced and well-presented are the most likely to see more than one bidder, agents said.

“If you have a home that is turnkey-ready, move-in-ready, it most likely is going to go above list or get into multiple offers,” said Shana Acquisto, broker and co-owner of Acquisto Real Estate and president of the Collin County Association of Realtors.

Thelma Ocampo (left) and Joel Ocampo look into their reflection in the living room of their...
Thelma Ocampo (left) and Joel Ocampo look into their reflection in the living room of their home in Princeton. The couple recently bought a house in The Trails at Riverstone neighborhood.(Liesbeth Powers / Staff Photographer)

Linda Lunn, a real estate agent with Keller Williams Urban Dallas, said if a home is priced between $350,000 and $500,000, which she calls “the sweet spot,” she always calls the agent to check if it is still available or has multiple offers on it.

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“I don’t like wasting people’s time,” Lunn said.

Thelma, who competed with three other people on her purchase, said to consider the price of competing with other buyers when looking at home prices. The Ocampos put offers in on two other homes but lost to other buyers.

“You’re going to have to have an extra $20,000 to outbid people,” Thelma said. On top of that, she said she was also surprised with the amount of fees for things like inspections and movers on top of the down payment and closing costs.

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Cash also remains king. Lee Harbaugh, a real estate agent with Mansfield-based Davey Goosmann Realty, said his clients recently put in an offer on a home around $250,000 to $300,000 in Fort Worth but lost to an all-cash buyer.

“One of the things I’ll tell [buyers] is, if you’re really in love with his house, and you really like his house, you’re probably smart to go ahead and offer a full list price on it, assuming that we believe it’s priced right,” Harbaugh said.

Don’t wait for lower prices, rates

Economists don’t expect a large decline in Dallas-Fort Worth home prices, which have dropped only slightly over the past year after significant increases since 2020. As for financing, the Mortgage Bankers Association forecasts mortgage rates will drop slightly this year but by no more than one percentage point.

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Harbaugh said when buyers make a decision on buying a house, they need to make it based on the rates and prices available at that time rather than relying on assumptions for where they think the market could be headed.

“None of us really knows what tomorrow is going to hold,” he said.

Acquisto said buyers need to consider more information about what is going on in their neighborhood along with their own priorities rather than bigger-picture news about falling home prices they may see in the media.

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“You have to understand what the statistics are, how close you are to amenities and how close you are to school, all these different factors,” Acquisto said.

Expand your search area

Buyers may have more success in smaller towns around on the outskirts of North Texas’ big cities that have seen a surge in population growth.

“You could go to Anna, Whitesboro is up and coming; there’s a lot of areas that are just a little outside and a little further north,” Acquisto said. “You might have to expand your range a little bit.”

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Houses under construction near the Princeton Municipal Center.
Houses under construction near the Princeton Municipal Center.(Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)

The Ocampos began searching for a home in McKinney, Allen and Plano. They kept getting outbid by other families or investors and found some homes to be too pricey for their budget or needing too much work.

After losing out in the other cities, they drove out to Princeton. Thelma said she had not been in Princeton for probably 15 years and noticed the fast-growing community had changed from what she remembered.

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They found that if they looked further from McKinney, they would be able to get more space and a bigger yard, and they wouldn’t have to resort to a fixer-upper or a smaller home.

“In the scheme of things, downtown McKinney would have been perfect,” Thelma said. “But who knows how long we would have had to wait to actually find the perfect location and the perfect price.”

Get connected to lenders and agents early

Agents suggest buyers get in touch with local lenders and real estate agents early in the process.

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It could give buyers a competitive edge. Thelma said the fact they were preapproved with a lender helped them get their offer chosen on the Princeton home.

Buyers also need to talk to lenders to know exactly how much they can afford to spend on a home, Lunn said.

“Do you know how much house you can really afford versus how much money you want to spend? Because there’s a lot of these $30,000 millionaires thinking, ‘I make a good living, I make $85,000 a year, and I can buy a $400,000 house,’ and the answer is no,” Lunn said. “It all depends on a bunch of different criteria.”

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Sheets said buyers, especially first-time buyers, need to understand their credit situation ahead of buying.

“With certain credit scores, you will get a better or lower interest rate,” Sheets said. “If you have 500 credit cards, maybe you talk to a lender and get on track to clean that up a little bit and have homebuying as a goal.”

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