How to Buy a Home in 2021

Positioning Yourself to Win in a Red Hot Market

In a recent Tik Tok video that was widely shared among real estate agents, a man holds up an apple and spouts out an asking price, as though he is selling it. The same man precedes to act out the role, not only of seller but also of multiple buyers. The apple quickly goes from $2 to over $100, as a bidding frenzy commences, bewildering the buyers even as they continue to outbid one another.

Notably, the only buyer who does not appear bewildered is the one buyer from California, whose blasé response is that he has “never seen an apple so cheap!” When one of the interested buyers asks if he can inspect the apple, the seller role replies with perfect deadpan affect, “You’ve seen an apple before. You know what an apple is.”

Anyone who is involved in the real estate market right now, whether as a buyer, seller, or real estate professional, can see the uncanny reflection of the current state of the real estate market in this comedic one man show.

There is an eerie irony depicted in this drama, from the frantic bidding war over the rapidly appreciating “apple,” to the cash heavy buyer from California who, presumably, has just liquidated a more highly priced west coast asset.

A national shortage of inventory and a record-setting level of demand is the setting…