Imagine putting an offer on a home and finding yourself in the situation where you are competing against multiple offers. Other buyers like the same house....Dang.
HOPEFULLY.......(Although not required-See #2 below) The listing agent sends a blast E-mail or text about the existence of multiple offers to all those agents who have showed interest or wrote an offer on the home. Your buyers agent then relays the information to you. Hopefully there is an assigned deadline that the listing agent has established as a time that the seller will respond to the offers.
What to do now? You love this home!
A few things to remember when you find yourself in this situation.
- I know it doesn't seem likely to happen but try to remain calm. Trust your experienced agent to guide you through the process. Understand that rarely does every agent get every multiple offer accepted. The more experienced agent you have the more likely that it will get accepted but..understand that not every agent is 100% successful all the time.
- The seller does NOT have to be fair in this situation. In my opinion and interpretation of the Realtor Code of ethics there is only one thing that the sellers agent needs to do and that is to treat all parties honestly.
- Write your best offer and stick to it. Draw a line in the sand and be comfortable with that decision.
- Communicate precisely to your agent about your offer. Ask your agent how you can make your offer stand out above others in this situation.
Hopefully your agent will guide you in the right direction in this situation. However YOU need to be comfortable with your offer and price association with it. Why??? I always tell my clients that we all have different opinions associated with the value of a particular property. For instance; I have a home that I live in. My personal value on a home a buyer client is interested in might be a bit different than my buyer client because of many reasons including these: 1) I don't need a place to live because I already have one. 2) I am not paying rent currently and don't feel the pressure of renewing my next lease. 3) I am not sure I would want another home at that point due to affordability and many other financial variables.
Additionally even If I could afford another home, I may not find the same value in the home my buyer client does due to so many other variables including proximity to my office or my immediate Family members homes. The size of home may be bigger or smaller than my ideal home side due to number of people living with me and other factors. Maybe the School District is different than what I want since I am not willing to spend more money on a perceived better School District? Maybe I just really hate the color or the exterior of the home and it could be your favorite color. There are just so many factors to consider.
Have your agent list comparable sold properties in the immediate area and also pull sold homes that are in the similar size, age, condition and school district. Know the extreme top of the market and discuss the properties in mind.
Finally understand this most overlooked fact. In my dealings with Sellers over the past decade, I have noticed that most want the most money and the less hassle in selling their home. They have a home to purchase also. They have a bunch of things to also worry about HOWEVER a Highest and Best offer does not mean exactly the same thing to every single seller. The terms that the seller may consider the best do not always reflect the same as what most people do. Just because you have a perceived higher offer amount does not mean that the offer is better. Sellers are emotional people during this time also. They may not place the $500 more you offer very high since they needed more possession in the other offer. They may not care about possession. We as agents always state that Cash is king but maybe they want to have their home go to somebody who can't pay cash. Again many variables. Not very common but Highest and Best isn't always Your vision of Highest and Best. Remember that.
