Real Estate the Ramsey Way - We Keep Getting Outbid on Houses (Should We Offer More?)

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

Getting outbid on house offers can be frustrating, especially in a competitive market. We walk through how to think about increasing your offer without making a decision you’ll regret later. Next steps: ·   🏠Not sure what to do next when buying or selling your home? Check out our ⁠⁠Real Estate Home Base⁠⁠ for free tools and resources to guide your next steps. ·   🏠And if you’re ready to buy or sell your home, ⁠⁠connect with a RamseyTrusted® real estate agent⁠⁠. They’re experts who’ll help you confidently navigate homeownership the way we teach. Explore more from Ramsey Network: 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💰 George Kamel 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

We are trying really hard. Our daughters in Grand Rapids, we're in Saginaw, and we're, well, two and a half hours away, and we want to move there, and prices her homes are high everywhere, but especially there. So we've got our home on the Ramsey plan. Our home is paid off. Our cars are paid off.

We just have our monthly expenses. My husband has us debt-free in a miracle way, because he just now retired at 67. I've been on disability since 2000. I'm sorry? That's it amazing. I know. He's amazing.

Well, my dad, when he passed away, helped a little bit because we got a little inheritance. But now we're looking, we're going to buy there, God willing, and sell here after we've purchased over there. And we're not, I mean, you know, it's like when you don't know how much you're going to get for the one you're selling, which I know, I'm 99.9%. positive, we're not going to get as much for this one as we are over there. If we took our house here over there, it would be about three times as much. Sure, sure. So my, I know, so the question is, we just got outbid again last night. Financially, maybe not, but they wanted us, the other buyers were willing to skip the inspection. And we bid, we overbid what they were asking for, but I'm sure these people did do.

And they had a cash offer. Yep, yep. So, yeah, I mean, if we sold ours right now and if we got what we want for it, you know, we'd be doing cash offer too. Sure. What's the difference in the numbers? What are you selling for versus what you want to buy for? Exactly.

And it's, yeah, we want to buy low and sell high in a perfect world. Yes, but tell us numbers. Tell us what you want to buy the, tell us the current property that you have, what you want to sell it for, and then what you want to sell it for. and then what you think you want to buy for? What we have now, I'm in a perfect world, well, the perfect world we get it done, but in a reasonable world we get $275.

Okay, maybe $250, but I'm hoping for $2.75. Perfect. And the ones there we've been looking for, I mean, obviously you want to go $250 and have more for moving costs and things. But what we've been looking at is between 260 and $320, and this one we were bidding like 20, let's see, 290, 300. We were bidding like 30,000 more than they were asking. Was it the, but there was a contingency on it, right?

Contingent on sale of your home? Or no? No. Okay. Oh, no, we can't even do that now because, I mean, we just can't. There's nothing available like that. Sue, I think you just need some patience. I think you're frustrated.

I think you have had your hopes up. You want to be close to the grandbabies, and you guys are ready to pull the trigger. You're ready to make the move. And one or two deals have slipped out under it, and you're just getting frustrated. So I would tell you, just breathe. Have some patience.

You are entering into a good market. It's actually more of a buyer's market right now than a seller. So the fact you're getting outbid, I know happens, but that is happening less and less. If anything, some houses are actually, up for negotiation. Yeah, that's right. That's right. And so, and you know, and we see, we have a real estate dashboard that you could even kind of check out, but, but it's great because it does show not only like the mortgage rates and everything happening, but how many days on the market

and all of it. But there's, there's something about having the patience in this, because if you don't and you feel a little desperate, you might do something, which I'm glad you didn't, something stupid of like waive the inspection, right? And then you go buy a house, side and see and almost and no inspection. And you guys get into it and it becomes horrible. So I really do believe the deal is going to come for you. I really do. I think you guys have been wise with your money. You have showed patience in the past and what you guys have done to build up, I mean, paying off a home and everything. So what you could do just to take the urgency down, if you wanted, just an idea, go ahead and sell your home and go rent somewhere for a year

over close to them and just know it's short term. And then and then actually take it. your time. He said, we're not going to move twice. I get that. Yeah, okay. Well, then you guys just need to have a little bit of patience because you know what you want. There are houses, I'm sure, for what you're looking for in that area. And actually, in the Midwest area, the average list price is $309,300 right now.

So you guys are, yeah, right where you are, which is perfect. So there should be some great options. And maybe it's a little bit of a different neighborhood than you were thinking originally. 10 minutes one way than what you wanted or I don't know but Grand Rapids I promise you there will be homes that you're going to be able to buy but I would um you should be a better month do what so may should be a better month you're thinking well just from a real estate perspective things are moving more they move more spring and summer real estate wise yeah just overall so I would say keep your eyes open

and so I would just say patience I think you guys you're in a good spot you're fine just stay within your budget, offer what you can, and if the deal doesn't happen, move on to the next. There's no perfect home. But you're fun, though. I appreciate you. Well, I'm renting an apartment to a former co-worker of mine,

and originally it started out where I was trying to help her out, get her back on her feet. She was going through a breakup, and she had two kids, and they were going to be homeless. And now it's to the point where I'm wondering if I'm just enabling her poor financial choices. How long has this been going on? Two years.

She's been there almost two years. Okay. Well, at what point was she supposed to get bag on her feet? Well, that's a good question. Right now, I'm charging her $750 a month in rent, and that's including all her utilities. The apartment should be about $1,200 a month in rent. She was doing all right,

And then she was in a car accident, didn't have any insurance. Now she's got a bill for that. And then she got into another car with those $40 down deals. And she's, you know, $20,000 in debt on a car that's only worth maybe $6 grand. She's paying more on her car than she's paying me for rent. So I don't see her getting out of the hole anytime soon. Okay. So instead of getting back on her feet, she dug the hole deeper.

Yeah, pretty much. By not having insurance and making a bad car decision. Yeah, and I just recently found out, well, she missed December rent. She's caught up now, but she missed that for, she was buying Christmas stuff for kids. Then I found out that she's paying $200 a month almost to rent couches for her apartment. Okay. She only makes about $3,000 a month, I think. So how does this end?

Where does this end? I mean, either I raise the rent and then she gets behind and I have to evict her, or, I mean, that's really the only, that's really the only option I see. I could ask her to leave. I don't know how that would go. I don't agree with you. I think that, I think if it just keeps deteriorating, you don't even have to raise the rent. She's not going to be able to pay it.

It's true. She keeps making stupid decision after stupid decision on top of each other and they're compounding. and she's going to bury herself, and then she's not going to be able to pay even your reasonable rent. Hello? Hello? Yeah. You agree? Yeah, I agree.

You don't even have to raise the rent. This thing's going to go down the toilet eventually anyway. Yeah. So, you know, the question is, are we just going to stand by and watch that happen? Are we going to take proactive measures on the other side one way or the other? So I do have a lease with her that's up in next March. Yeah. I mean, I guess just right that hour.

I don't think she's going to make it a year. I don't. She works a seasonal job and her hours will go down midsummer. What is her job? She's only making as much. We both work in the greenhouse. Okay. So we, that's what I'm wondering.

Is there an emotional attachment you have to this person that you probably have not or would not with other people that are leasing from you? Well, we used to work together and we don't anymore. That ended about three months ago. I no longer worked with her. And I also, I was living in, it's a triflex. I was living there as well. So as long as I was there and seeing her every day, that made it harder.

And I no longer lived there. So that's really helped me have more of an emotional break. Emotional break from having to see her and see her there, see her at work. And I'm really kind of. You sounded emotional when you started talking to us. I could be wrong, but you sounded emotional. I'm just nervous. Okay.

Well, you're doing great, by the way. You're doing great. Well, thanks. Yeah. I'm with Dave on this one. But I would be planning. I would be planning on what are we going to do when she can't pay the rent anymore so that you're not stuck with this? Because this doesn't, there's just, you wouldn't do this for anybody else is the feeling I get it.

I don't think that you can fix her life. Yeah. Because she's choosing not to. and you're not going to fix it. If you gave her free rent, she would screw it up. No, I think if I gave her free rent, she would go rent three more couches. That's what I meant. She'd screw it up.

Yeah. Yeah. Or a hot tub for the back porch or whatever, yeah. And so I think we've got to, you know, you need to sit down and have a conversation with her, human to human and say, all right, we started this so that I could help you. and here's what's happened since I started helping you. You've gotten worse. You rented couches.

You went around without car insurance and made a mess. And then you bought a car that you absolutely can't afford that's killing you. And so I'm thinking this is going to end poorly. Like you're going to not pay me rent. And then I'm going to have to evict my friend who I was trying to help. and this whole thing breaks my heart. So you and I need to come to an agreement that says that you need to go live somewhere else because I'm not a blessing to you, and I want to be a blessing to you.

I want to be helpful to you, and I can't be that while you're here. So maybe I should ask her to look for somewhere else before the situation gets worse? Yeah, like now. I was talking about this conversation happens next week. Okay. Yeah, I want her to leave now. I want her to go buy go rent something that she can afford that's cheaper and um she can't get anywhere cheaper yes she can i don't know where i don't either i don't either but it's not your job your job is to

remove her that's it no you're right because you're not this is not going to work out it's not a loving you're not loving her by just doing nothing and letting this thing go down the drain if you really do care about her, help her move. You know, I'll give you a free rent. I'll give you a free month's rent. Or I'll refund next month's rent if you're gone by the end of the month. And that'll help you get started on your new thing and give her $750 after she moves out. Okay.

I can do that. And then go rent the stinking thing for $1,200. And the next time you get ready to help someone, you need to think about what help looks like and where this is taking us. because you giving her a place to live did not keep her from being homeless. Yeah. Hello. That did not that. You know, you used that line in your head and you used it on us, but I'm not buying it.

She would have figured out something. She's always figured out something. And the only way that I help someone in a situation like that is if I get down under the thing and I start going, okay, we're going to be on a budget. We're going to work six jobs. There's no rental couches. There's no car payments. We keep insurance in place. And we're going to ride herd on doing smart stuff with your money.

And if you do smart stuff with your money, after a little while, you'll have some money. It's pretty amazing. It's kind of works like every time. And when you do dumb stuff with money, you have no money. It works like every time. It's going to ask you, how do you recommend people, like in this situation, deal with the guilt? Because she's a good person. The caller's a really good person.

and obviously trying to help out a former co-worker. You can't be, your job is not Jesus. That's right. But how you begin to separate? It's his job. That's right. You're not signed up for that and you don't have skills for it. Right.

Your job is not to fix everyone. You can't fix other people. The only thing you can do is set up a situation where they can do something. You set up a situation where they could do something and they chose not to do it. That's right. I can't make the lady stop doing stupid stuff. So a question could be, did I do everything possible? It's why I end the call here.

Right. someone calls and they, I tell them what to do and then they argue with me. I tell them what to do and then they argue with me. The third time they argue with me, a hundred percent of the time you all will hear me in the call. I am not going to try to talk you into this stuff. I'll show you what to do. And if you, if you insist on being a stupid but human being, you're going to be broke.

And I'm going to just watch it happen. I am, and I go home with no guilt. I turn off the microphone, get my car, drive home. I don't even remember you called. because it's not my job to fix your life. My job to help you show you how you fix your life. You're the hero in the story. I'm not the hero.

I'm just a guy on the sideline showing you what to do. I'm Yoda teaching you how to swing the lightsaber. If you choose not to get in a fight, I can't help you with it. You know, you've got to step into the force yourself. I can't do it for you. And she can't do it for her friend. And just giving her a place to live and calling that, oh, she would have been homeless. otherwise, no, she wouldn't. That's bull crap. She wouldn't either. She might have had a hard patch

and then worked it out. But you got to stop doing the stuff that you keep doing the same thing over and over again. You expect a different result. It's a definition of insanity. And I got no guilt about that. That's not being calloused. It's just, it's not my job to be Jesus. He's got that job already taken. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to Real Estate the Ramsey Way. Now, if you're here, you're probably thinking about buying or selling a house. It's exciting. and one of the biggest financial decisions you'll ever make. But you don't want to do it with an inexperienced agent who will rush you into costly mistakes, like the ones some of our callers find themselves in.

You need a pro who knows what the flip they're doing and will keep you on track with your financial goals. That's why we only recommend Ramsey trusted real estate agents. These are vetted, hand-picked pros who actually listen to your needs, guide you through the process, and fight to get you the best deal. To find a Ramsey trusted agent near you, go to Ramsey Solutions.com slash trusted agent. That's ramsysolutions.com slash trusted agent.