5 Types of Homes Still Getting Multiple Offers

While a lot of YouTubers and the news want you to believe a housing crash is imminent, there's still a handful of homes out there getting multiple offers, and it comes down to location and property type. Real estate is local: parts of South Florida, Louisiana, and Texas have home prices back to 2022 levels, and sellers who bought since then are having to sell at a discount. The market isn't crashing everywhere, some markets are just softer than others. Here are the five types of properties still drawing real competition, and why.

1. Homes Priced Below What They're Actually Worth

I get a call about this at least once every couple of weeks: a buyer looking at a property the listing agent has priced below what the comparables say it's worth. It's usually strategic. When you price a home above comparable sales, that mostly worked back in 2020 and 2021 when supply was low and demand was high, but it doesn't hold up in this market since inventory has increased substantially. Pricing below market instead creates exposure, and exposure drives demand, demand drives price. The home draws more eyeballs, which can spark a bidding war that ends up netting the seller what they wanted in the first place. If you're looking at one of these, talk to your agent about how it's priced and where they expect it to sell before you get emotionally invested, so you don't end up paying more than the home is actually worth.

2. True Fixer-Uppers, Not Just Paint-and-Carpet Jobs

I'm talking about properties needing a full remodel: a new roof, new kitchens and bathrooms, sometimes foundation work, homes that usually aren't financeable with a standard loan unless you're using a renovation loan like a 203k or a Fannie Mae HomeStyle product. Most require cash. These sell quickly, usually to investors, because they can buy significantly under the fixed-up value, do the remodel, and put the home back on the market. A lot of these properties sell before they ever hit the open market, which makes them very hard for a typical buyer to compete for unless you're coming in with cash.

3. HGTV-Style Turnkey Remodels

This is the flip side of the fixer-upper: move-in-ready properties that look exactly like what people have been watching on home renovation shows. Because affordability is tight in so many markets, buyers are putting most of what they have toward the down payment, with little left over to do work themselves, so a truly turnkey home draws heavy demand. The catch: pay attention to whether the work was actually done right. Some investors put lipstick on a pig, fixing what you can see (kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, paint) while skipping the major systems behind the walls or under the house. A well-remodeled, correctly priced home in a good location is still selling in days here in Southern California, usually at or above asking with multiple offers, so if that's what you want, come in with a strong offer upfront. I've had clients hold back their strongest offer expecting a counter, only to never get one, because a seller isn't required to counter every offer.

4. Good Bones, Not Fully Updated, Good Location

These are homes where the major systems, the roof, the HVAC, the electrical panel, maybe the plumbing, have been done, but the kitchen and bathrooms are older, sometimes updated fifteen or twenty years ago. What matters is the location: a desirable school district, walkability, proximity to shopping and restaurants. Buyers are realizing they can buy one of these, live in it a couple of years while saving to remodel, and actually figure out what they want to change once they're living there. I've done it the other way, upgraded everything before moving in, and realized afterward we would have made different choices had we lived there first. When the major systems are already done, it usually means the home has been taken care of, and there's a whole generation of long-term owners who maintained their homes well without chasing today's style trends.

5. Two-Story Homes With a Downstairs Primary Suite

These are two-story properties with a bedroom and full bath downstairs, whether or not it's directly attached. They're popular right now largely because of a downsizing generation of homeowners who no longer want to deal with stairs, plus multigenerational households where a parent or grandparent needs to live on the main level. Here in Huntington Beach we have a lot of single-level homes, so it's not unusual to see one come on the market, but newer construction in many areas skews two-story as builders maximize square footage on smaller lots, which means fewer downstairs-suite options in those newer neighborhoods. If that layout matters to you now or down the road, know that these are still competitive wherever they show up.

The Common Thread

Inventory drives markets, and in most areas it's still lower than 2019 levels, even though some markets have pushed above that. That means we're mostly in a level playing field, not clearly favoring buyers or sellers, where both sides give a little to get a deal done. But the five property types above are the exception. If you're competing for one, work with an agent who knows your specific market and knows how to position an offer, because generic advice about a national housing market won't tell you how to actually win one of these.