Multiple Offers

Photo courtesy of: www.paradigmedge.com

When the market is slow multiple offers on one property is not something that is very common.  Recently we have seen this come back which is a great sign for the market.  How you deal with multiple offers can be very critical in making your real estate deal work.

The third year I was in real estate I had a buyer who wrote offers on 3 different homes and all 3 had multiple offers.  The first 2 homes they did not get.  The third home they ended up having their contract accepted only after writing an offer $2,500 over asking price.  The thing I remember most about this is how bad they were kicking themselves for not offering more in order to get the first home which they liked a lot more than the home they ended up with.  They knew that there were multiple offers on the home and they didn't make their highest and best.  There is nothing wrong with paying full price for a home especially if you love it.  Many people get too caught up in negotiating and don't keep in mind that they actually want the home.  My advice when you are making an offer on a home with multiple offers is to cut the negotiations and go ahead and make  your highest and best offer.

Anyone selling their home would love to have multiple offers, but if not negotiated correctly you could end up with nothing.  As a realtor I have to have my sellers permission to let the buyers agent know if there are competing offers on the property.  The reason is that if 2 buyers are making offers on the same house and find out that there are multiple offers, they may decide they do not want to get in a bidding war and withdraw their offer.  If this happens me as the realtor can not be the cause of this.  I will say that I do think that it does benefit the seller to let this be known.  In this circumstance the seller needs to remain reasonable during negotiations.  They also need to look at the whole offer and not just the bottom line price.  If one buyer is pre-qualified with a reputable lender that buyers offer should be strongly considered.  You don't want to take the highest offer only to have the deal fall apart in 3 weeks because of the loan.  Also look at all contingencies.  Do either of the buyers need to sell their home first?  If so is their home under contract.  These are all things to look at.