It’s no secret that finding a home in a hot housing market has presentedplenty of challenges. Homebuyers aren't just dealing with limited inventory, they're also up against competitive offers and rising interest rates. But, one family pressed on.
In fact, they found a new strategy to find a home, opening the door to possibilities.
Ryan Rochford has been house hunting in Florida for his family of four. It's been a difficult search.
"We've learned to be kind of cold about it and not get too attached to anything," Rochford said. "Buyers do not have the same leverage, and for that, I guess they would need to let go of their traditional ways."
His family moved to the Jupiter area from Canada four years ago. They recently decided to buy a home in the midst of the fast-moving market.
"It's been no surprise, like everybody else," Rochford said. "It's quite shocking to see how much the prices have increased."
He stayed open to several options.
"There's many different recipes that can work for us, and a condo is one of them," Rochford said.
He's been fine-tuning his strategy along the way.
"We've had to waive financing," Rochford said. "We've learned that people waive inspections."
WATCH: Real estate agent shares home-buying advice
Andrew Levy, a real estate agent, has guided Rochford through the homebuying process.
"It's an arch seller's market. Sellers have an extreme amount of power, an extreme amount of leverage to really call all the shots," Levy said.
Levy believes buyers find the most success when waving the financing contingency.
"If it under appraises, the buyer has to make a decision," Levy said. "They have to either increase their deposit or they have to increase their sale price."
Rochford eventually waived the financing contingency on a Palm Beach Gardens home. That strategy worked.
"It went under contract with someone else, it didn't work out, so they came back because we were the most competitive," Rochford said. "We were the strongest non-cash offer."
His advice to homebuyers is to be flexible and stay patient through the process.
"Each time we weren't successful on a property, we started to tweak the strategy until it worked, and we just did it," Levy said.
The Rochford family said they found more success when they broadened their search and looked outside of their current school zone.
This story was originally published by Linnie Supall of WPTV in West Palm Beach, Florida.
