More Proof that the Houston Market Is Moving Fast

[Collin Garbarino]

I saw a crazy deal yesterday.

A house went on the MLS Friday afternoon for $115K. No pictures, and the listing agent wasn't going to schedule any showings until Sunday. I contacted my agent on Friday afternoon to set up an appointment to walk the property Sunday afternoon. By Sunday afternoon, the property was under contract, sight unseen.

That's pretty typical around here—not the crazy part of the story.

The crazy part is that something jogged my memory Sunday afternoon when my agent told me that we'd missed the opportunity. I had her look up the history. The same property had gone on the market for $70K just a couple of weeks before. I'd wanted to buy it then, but got beat out by a few hours! The guy who bought relisted it as soon has he closed and just hauled away the trash that was laying around. I missed out on the same property twice in less than a month!

So right now in Houston, there's no time to walk a property. I've just about decided that I need to hop in the car as soon as I see something promising, drive by it, and make an offer if the thing looks okay from the outside.

AND I need to work on getting an off-market pipeline running.

I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts on this kind of situation.