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Multiple Offers: Truth or Fiction?

By
Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker Residential

When buyer clients hear that there are multiple offers, it is common for them to think that is nothing more than a ploy to get them to raise their offer.  Sometimes the client will give voice to that thought and actually share that thought with me.   That happened yesterday.  My Buyer-client is in a multiple offer.  When I phoned to put him on notice that there are multiple offers, he said "isn't that what the other side ALWAYS says?  Isn't that how they get you to increase your offer?"  I just sat there, holding the phone in my hand, shaking my head and thinking "how can I answer this so he will get it....."

worried girl

Trust is earned.  Trust is something that happens over time.  My client doesn't have enough experience with me to be able to make up his mind about whether I am trust-worthy or not.  He found me when he phoned in for information about a house.  He wasn't sent to me by a friend or former client.  We are strangers, trying to do business together.   He has to put me in the context of his life experiences and it appears that his life experiences support a belief that people will lie and cheat. 

I can't tell you how sorry that makes me.  It just makes me want to weep.  Because I know that I am on the list of people he doesn't trust.   Underneath his question about the other side is an unspoken invitation for me to prove that somehow I am different. I know that all I can do is just keep doing what I do.  We just have to keep going forward.  I will continue to do the next right thing, knowing that I can't control the outcome.

So, what did I tell him?  Americans really hate to dicker.  They want to put their position on the table and let the other side take it or leave it.  The going back and forth of negotiation really makes people in our culture nervous.  What I tell people is to submit to the process.  The best solutions frequently are a group decision.  Negotiation, done right, develops into a group decision.  We all put what we need on the table and then we see if we can craft a way for each of us to get the most of what it is that we want.  Negotiation is a process.

What I told him is that for the listing agent to claim that there is are multiple offers when in fact aren't is  a lousy negotiation strategy. It backfires.  Half the time it makes people back away from the deal.   People back away because they just hate to dicker.   If there were really only one buyer, why would a seller take a 50% risk of running them off?  If you aren't willing to believe that the reason a listing agent is telling the truth because that is the ethical and morally right thing to do, then please just accept that making it up isn't in their best interest.  It doesn't work.  We are doing real life here, not the movies.


image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/taylormariephotography/ under Creative Commons License

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Comments (5)

Carolyn Kolba
Serving Mentor, and all of Lake County, Ohio - Mentor, OH
Keller Williams Realty- Mentor, Ohio

Judith, sooner or later a buyer who believes that being told there are "multiple offers" will lose out on a home they love.  Then they will start to take those words seriously.

Jun 01, 2011 05:01 PM
Sharon Parisi
United Real Estate Dallas - Dallas, TX
Dallas Homes

Great advice for Buyers in a multiple offer situation. Recently, I had a listing with multiple offers and actually had one Realtor tell me that her Buyer was not interested in dealing with a multiple offer.

Jun 01, 2011 05:02 PM
Judith Abbott
Coldwell Banker Residential - Dallas, TX

Carolyhn and Sharon, I find it helpful, when I am the listing agent, to acknowledge the buyer's disbelief.  I will ask "why would I make this stuff up?"  Some times that helps. 

Jun 01, 2011 05:14 PM
John Michailidis
Real Property Management of Sarasota & Manatee - Sarasota, FL
Real Property Management of Sarasota & M

I liked your post and I thank you for sharing it!

Jun 01, 2011 06:24 PM
Kathleen Vetrano
RE/MAX Gateway - Falls Church, VA
Helping YOU Achieve YOUR Dreams

50% is darn good!  Very good approach and direction for working with a client and multiple offers.

Jun 01, 2011 06:30 PM