Good luck on your hunt. I am in the same boat. Looking for something in the area. We’ve put in many offers. Our budget is a hard but not insignificant. Some offers were total shots in the dark, with barely 20k over asking. Then we made some with escalation up to 100k over asking. Hell, I even wrote a letter to a lady who has a house sitting vacant and not on market and was sure to included a photo of my dog. *sigh*
It is totally a “sellers” market.