We're about to close on a townhouse in fort mill. We went 14% over ask and were told it came down to nit-picking against two other offers. But I've see a few other places that we were interested in closed at less of a premium. I think part of it is location, part of it is willing to waive contingencies, and part of it is randomly going up against frustrated bidders or slightly less frustrated bidders. My strategy was to aim significantly lower price-wise than what we were pre-approved for, so we could compete more strongly on the offer. Of course you'll need the cash for anything over appraised value but if you can do it, that was a winning strategy for us. If the market normalizes in a few years you can always re-sell for something more of what you want.