Multiple offer situation - they suck for the buyer but are great if you are the seller. Although the multiple offers are not as common as perhaps the first part of last year, I definitely still experience them with my clients and I want to make sure you are armed with the information you need to win.
So how do you make your offer as appealing as possible to the sellers?
MONEY! Sometimes sellers will price their house under what they are expecting to sell for. They are doing this to build up a bunch of excitement about their house with the hopes of generating multiple offers. If you are in a multiple offer situation you are likely going to have to pay more than the asking price to get the house.
Here are some tips that will hopefully help you secure your dream home in this situation.
1. Decide how much you want the house. A property is only ever worth what someone is willing to pay for it so you need to decide if losing it is an option
2. Always be guided by your agent. Depending on your answer to the above will dictate your plan of action but your agent should be able to help with that plan.
3. Your realtor needs to find out what the specific offer process is for that house. Is it a one shot round where you come in with your best and final offer or is it multiple round system where the sellers are going to go back to the buyers and give them an opportunity to improve their offer. This will impact the initial price that you come in at.
4. Try to remove or shorten conditional periods. The 2 most common conditions are financing an inspection. For a home inspection try to do your inspection before you bring in the offer. A lot of the time we can get same day inspections.
For financing make sure you meet with your lender before you start looking and give them all of the documentation that they need for your final approval upfront. That way you know exactly what you can spend.
5. Have your agent contact the listing realtor and find out if there is a specific closing date that the sellers want and how important it is to them. If it is a big deal to the sellers try to accommodate it.
6. If you have the cash on hand then put in a big deposit. A big deposit shows that you are a serious buyer and it gives the seller confidence in your ability to get financing.
7. Lastly, when possible your agent should always present in person! This puts a face to the offer and makes the transaction more personal for the sellers. It is also very important for you to be easily assessable at offer presentation time. This way if the sellers have a question or want to make a change to your offer it can be done quickly.
Make sure you’ve provided all of the required documents with your initial offer. If a seller receives multiple offers, one of the first things he/she often does is throw out the sloppy and incomplete offers.
- Justin
