The Pulse of Buyer Activity (Spring 2025)
As I prepared for National Open House Weekend April 26th-27th, expectations were high. Buyers have been out in full force in Northern Virginia since early 2025. Now with weather supporting the arrival of spring, listing agents like myself expected cherry listings that were priced right and presented perfectly, to get at least a handful of offers.
The truth in 2025 and for most of 2024 is that not every listing gets multiple offers. Too many sellers rely solely on market conditions favoring sellers to get a rally of buyers bidding on their homes and have been sorely disappointed. Differing a whole house paint job or new carpet is not advised if you want buyers to be enthusiastic about your home. That is not new news. Earlier this month, I helped buyers find the potential in an over priced and certainly under prepared home in Haymarket that had been languishing on the market for over three months. Cleaning and staging make a HUGE difference. Not every seller gets that advice, but you better believe my seller-clients do.
So back this past weekend. I had two active listings, both well prepared, priced right and professionally marketed. Market demand was high. Open houses both days on both properties were well attended. Private showings were booking at a good rate. And the questions came from multiple agents on both properites, “When is the offer deadline?” The answer was that no deadline would be set until the first offer was received. Why? Buyers haven’t been responding well to deadlines set as a matter of practice the minute the listing goes active. Professional listing agents have reserved deadlines for a time when an offer is in hand and other buyer agents have expressed an interest on behalf of their clients.
In the case of one of my listings, an offer came in. And three other buyer agents with interested buyers, who all said they would submitting an offer, evaporated over the course of the next six hours.
The other listing had a much more enthusiastic bunch of buyer agents, more robust showing schedule and open houses so I expected at least a couple offers there. Once an offer came in there, the other agents and buyers who had, once again, expressed out right confidence that they would be submitting an offer, also vanished quietly over the course of twenty-four hours. What in the word was going on?
In the meantime, I was also representing buyers who have been earnestly looking for a home. We submitted an offer on a listing and have yet to get a response from a seller who has had our offer over twenty-four hours at the time of this post. The listing agent may be attempting to drum up a better offer, and that is their right. I am sure that listing agent may find out the same thing that myself and other professionals found this past weekend. Buyer urgency seems to have taken a vacation in the Northern Virginia market.
Can you blame buyers? They write offer after offer, go above list price and give sellers free rent backs. That’s not enough. Buyers have to waive all inspections. (sigh) And then…let’s rub some salt in that wound. The seller wants to counter the buyer agent compensation being requested by the seller in the contract because the sellers want even more. Guess what? Buyers are growing weary of the games. This weekend they seem to be letting listing agents and their sellers know they are tired of bending over backwards only to be twisted a different, more uncomfortable and impossible way.
What does the rest of the spring market hold? Who knows? Can sellers still expect to sell over list and get strong offers? If their home is priced right, well prepared and professionally marketed, they are more than likely to get super strong offers but don’t expect to have a plate full of them from what I have seen. One may be all a seller is reviewing at a time. That is when sellers will be thankful they hired this listing agent who knows how to connect with agents, encourage offers and most importantly negotiate…a skill too many agents licensed 2019 and newer have never had to hone.
Buyer demand is still high. Sellers still have the advantage, there is no question of that. Buyers who act quickly and decisively will still reap the rewards. But just like buyers will wait for better homes, sellers will also wait for better offers if the offers on the table won’t entertain a reasonable counter.
Chris Ann Cleland
Associate Broker
VA License #0225089470
Long & Foster Real Estate
Call or Text: 703-402-0037
Email: ChrisAnn@LNF.com
www.UncompromisingValues.com
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of Chris Ann Cleland, not Long & Foster. All content is written by Chris Ann Cleland without the aid of artificial intelligence.