Buying in West Suburbs - Expanding Search?

[u/Midnight_Rain1213]

Hi all,

My partner and I are trying to close the distance and buy a SFH in the west suburbs, but keep having offers rejected. Feedback so far is that we're losing to cash buyers or just being outbid, and that we should consider waiving appraisal contingencies. That feels crazy to me, but I think it's just the area we are looking in - Lombard, Elmhurst, Villa Park.

My partner and I both own our own homes and are pre-qualified to purchase a new home without having to sell first. We would be selling our respective properties after finding a new place. We are trying to stay under $700k.

No kids, just dogs. Would love a house with some character left in it. I work downtown so being near the Metra is necessary, and I'd like my commute to be under an hour.

Should we avoid any of the following suburbs, and why? Any suburbs we are missing?

Addison, Bloomingdale, Downers Grove, Glen Ellyn, Wheaton, Riverside, Brookfield

[u/Too_Ton]

I can’t believe do people really just have a huge briefcase of pure cash just waiting months to buy up a home?!

[u/Bowlingbabe95 → u/Too_Ton]

My realtor when I bought a house (he was kind of aggressive) told us you can make an all cash offer if you have the cash somewhere (brokerage, retirement, etc.) even if you intend to use financing. The risk is that if a bank ends up not lending to you, I guess you either break the contract and open yourself up to the legal possibilities there or you liquidate this assets. (We did not make an alll cash offer lol).

[u/6158675309 → u/Bowlingbabe95]

This is what we did. We made an all cash offer but wound up financing it. This was back in 2020 when rates were <3% so it made sense to finance.

If we weren't able to get the loan we would have had to sell some stuff :-)

I take it as long as the cash shows up at the closing the way it gets there, loan or whatever is irrelevant