Coronavirus News: Real estate market seeing huge shift to suburbs
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NEW YORK (WABC) -- Realtors are busy in the suburbs, as many city residents and businesses flee for greener pastures.
Families are looking to spread out, and businesses need more space to distance office workers.
After a decade in the city, the pandemic finally pushed Dr. Peter Wu and his wife Helen to the suburbs.
But buying in the suburbs hasn't been easy.
"We've encountered multiple offers, bidding wars," Dr. Wu said.
Frances Tak is trying to find the Wu's a new home in a market with high demand and not a lot of inventory.
Tak's advice is to be ready to bid over asking price.
Get pre-approved for a mortgage before you start house hunting. And prepare to put more cash on the table.
"My current clients are in bidding wars left and right," Tak said. "$10,000 to $15,0000 over asking wasn't good enough."
The same is true on the commercial end.
Weichert commercial broker Cynthia Laterra says companies and private practices are all looking for more socially distant space than the city can provide.
One Yonder Hill property in Palisades, New York is so competitive, it has multiple bids from families who want to turn the century old building, not into a restaurant or office, but into a home.
The big takeaways, use a licensed broker.
Set bidding parameters before you start to look at properties, and always visit properties in person.
Online listings are fine, but there's no substitute for seeing the property in person.
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