How to Buy a House in Baltimore amidst a Post Pandemic Rush with No Houses on the Market

No, we’re not messing with you… It really is possible to find and buy a home in Baltimore right now. Easy? No way. Possible? Definitely. With the right knowledge, strategy, and realtor team behind you [ahem, TBG] you can buy a house even when there are no houses on the market.

Here’s how:

1. Assuming you’ve already enlisted the help of TBG, you need to get very specific.
   
   Are you looking for a particular area or neighborhood, like the suburbs of Towson or Lutherville? Do you need to stay within a certain school district? Do you need a building with an elevator? A rancher in Hunt Valley? A house with a detached garage in Roland Park? Can you be flexible with the neighborhood as long you stay within a certain county? Are you willing to renovate a charming Baltimore rowhouse?  The more specific you can get with your criteria, the better. This will help us figure out where to start.
   
   But how do we find you a house when there are no houses on the market? Hold on, we’re getting there!
   

2. Now that we have your specific criteria, this is when we get to work. Serious work.
   
   Since there are only about 7 houses on the market right now [pretty much], we can’t just go onto the MLS and do a search. The search results are slim to none. So this is when we exhaust our network, connections, and past sales throughout the Baltimore metro to find you what you’re looking for.
   
   Here’s the scenario: You need to find a rancher in a certain school district and it has to have a finished basement. Well... we have sold several homes in that school district over our 25 years of combined experience so we jump on the phone and call our past clients:

   1. Do they know any of their neighbors who might want to sell?

   2. Does their next door neighbor still live in Florida for part of the year?

   3. Can they put us in touch with the neighbor who runs the HOA and knows everyone and everything?

   
   We get a few leads that way.
   
   We call a colleague who flips houses in Baltimore County on a regular basis, and ask if they have anything coming up. There’s another lead. Then, we remember someone we met at an Open House last year in Hampden who may have a house that fits your criteria. We call them. They are not quite ready to sell but tell us that we can show their house, and if our buyers [you] can be flexible with timing, we might be able to make it work.
   
   Along the way, we talk to an agent who has another house coming on the market soon in Ruxton that may fit the criteria of another buyer we are working with. So in this process, we’ve actually found you a house that you love AND we’ve identified a house for another client!
   
   This scenario may seem far fetched, but it’s actually more common than you think, especially in today’s market. Our business is based on building a community throughout Baltimore and the surrounding counties, and we are proud of the relationships and connections we have because it helps us help our clients. And that is our number one goal!
   

3. This brings us to our final tip on how to buy a house when there are no houses on the market. BE PATIENT and BE FLEXIBLE. Good things take time, and this market requires patience and flexibility on your part and creativity and resourcefulness on our part. We’ve got you covered if you can hold up your end of the deal, and we will be patient and committed right along with you!