There Are No Houses for Sale in the Neighborhood I Like. Here's How I May Have Found One to Buy Anyway

I have been trying to buy a home for months. Despite having pre-approval through a mortgage lender, I've been unable to move forward due to a lack of houses for sale in the area where I want to live. I've been waiting and waiting for a house I like to come on the market with absolutely no luck.

Recently, though, I had a breakthrough. I decided to take a different approach and now it looks as if I'll be moving forward with purchasing a property. Here's what I did, and why it worked out so well for me. 

I looked beyond the MLS to find my house 

Since I was frustrated there were no houses for sale that I liked, I decided to instead look at houses that were for rent. It was not that I was interested in renting one. I like to customize my houses to be the way I want, and I also like to have my monthly payments help build equity, so I am not at all interested in renting. 

I was hoping that I might be able to find a house that was listed for rent and contact the owners to see if they might sell it to me instead. I thought that I might have better luck with this approach if I could find one that had been listed to rent for a while with no takers.

I ended up finding a home not just in my chosen neighborhood, but on the street I really wanted to live on, that had been listed for rent for 110 days. The description said that the house had been undergoing some remodeling but was ready to rent. Obviously, though, no one was interested in moving in. 

I asked my real estate agent to contact the rental agent, and after some back and forth, it turned out the owners were potentially willing to sell to me. There are definitely some renovations needed and the house is more of a fixer-upper than I wanted, but it has an amazing view and is in my ideal location, so I'm very excited to have found it and to be moving forward with the buying process.  

Thinking outside the box could be the key to finding a property 

The reality is, despite high mortgage rates, the housing market is still really competitive. People who currently own homes -- and who have mortgages at low rates -- are holding onto them rather than selling. This means there are fewer homes available for people to buy. In fact, in June 2023, there were 25.7% fewer homes listed for sale compared to the prior year. 

If you are trying to find a house in this market, you may need to get creative. Looking at homes for rent like I did is one option that could potentially help you find someone willing to sell. You could also attend open houses to see if any neighbors who show up may be thinking of listing properties, or you could reach out to people in the area you want to live in and let them know you're in the market.

These approaches may or may not pay off for you, but as you wait for the perfect house to be listed, it's worth giving it a try.