When I am sitting on an unratified contract on another agent's listing, patience is not a virtue that I tend to manifest.

Now I work in an allegedly declining market, but that doesn't mean that the buyers call the shots - at least not when the house is at a very low price, in excellent condition and staged to be an outrageous flirt with every buyer who walks through the door!

We wrote a good, solid offer that, while not totally perfect from the sellers' perspective, was at consistent with recent comps.  And there is one other offer that came in last night.   And the listing agent is not presenting the offers until sometime today, meaning even more could come in!

And last night, I was in a state of high anxiety!

In the meantime, I think my own anxiety is rubbing off on my buyers, who almost withdrew their offer!   And in this market, I think it's wise to react to this kind of situation differently that what might have seemed appropriate back in 2005.  This was my advice:

• Look at the comparable sales information. 
  
• Make your best offer based on the market data.
• If another offer comes in, try to be rational in your response.  If you have made an offer that you think is fair, and if you don't want to up the ante, you might lose the house, but you might also avoid making an emotional decision and overpay for the place.
• Don't allow yourself to get too attached to the house while you're waiting for an answer from the listing agent and the sellers.
• Remember that there will always be another house.

So any minute the listing agent is supposed to call and let me know what happened.  And while I'd like to win this one, I have found two more places that look pretty amazing to show my buyers this afternoon.