nashville_home_stagingInventory in Nashville is low… meaning a higher likelihood of bidding wars and compromises, and often, higher prices. But low inventory isn’t the same thing as NO inventory, and there are thousands of homes for sale in the middle Tennessee area! And if you want to pare down the options by making two lists: must-haves, and want-to-haves.

Distinguishing between the non-negotiable items you need in a home and the ones where you can afford to compromise can give you the leverage and ability to walk away from a home you’ve entered in a bidding war for before getting too attached and making the dangerous mistake of overpaying for.

But fast-moving markets are different in other ways, too.

They tend to be more expensive to begin with. In other words, they have both higher price levels AND they’ve notched bigger price increases in the past year. Expensive markets—including the Gulch, Green Hills, and 12 South—have tight housing supplies because of limited construction in the face of growing demand. So homes get snapped up quickly. And this is bad news for first-time homebuyers. The combination of an expensive market and fast-selling homes at the low tier is yet another hurdle for first-timers, who are already getting slammed by declining affordability and slow wage growth. Now, even the homes they might be able to afford seem to be disappearing in the blink of an eye.