What Might Happen If The Home Seller Gets Multiple Offers?
Even in a cold market, one where the buyers "own" the market, you may still not be the only buyer in love with a home! Logically, you'd think this home has been on the market for months and months and the price hasn't changed so what are the odds that someone else is thinking about writing an offer at the same time as me?? You'd have to think slim odds, but it's strange how often this doesn't turn out to be the case. It's almost like the home sends out vibes to other buyers, or just as likely, a buyer's agent has told the listing agent that their buyer likes it BUT they're not quite ready to pull the trigger yet. So Call Me Maybe if you get another offer or rumblings of one??
Now the listing agent works for the seller, and while they might like to keep the buyer's agents all happy campers, they do work for the seller and follow all legal direction from the seller. The seller has several options to pursue, some of which might not make the buyer side happy:
- Negotiate just one offer and ignore the other(s)
- Negotiate multiple offers without telling that any other offers exist...this one is a tightrope because you run the risk of having multiple accepted offers if not done properly.
- Disclose to all that there is a multiple offer situation. This typically leads to a "highest and best" by a deadline. The seller then typically picks from the offers to decide who to continue with. It might not necessarily be the highest offer if other terms mean more to the seller.
Key factors a seller may consider (and should consider) is financing and other offer terms (price, closing date, occupancy date, etc.). Other things a seller may consider? That your offer started off much lower than the other and it kind of ticked them off. Or that your offer contained demands they didn't like right from the start. And another thing that just may influence the offer? Your choice of buyer's agent. If your agent has a rep of being a pain in the hindquarters, or not getting his/her deals through to completion and the listing agent knows that, you can bet the listing agent is providing that info to the seller.
So just food for thought, when you find that just right home, there are several things to do:
- Act fast. That overnight "I gotta think about it" might be the window for another offer to come in (and maybe already be accepted).
- Start fairly with your offer. Yes, everyone wants a bargain, but push it too far and you may just irritate the seller to the point that your offer gets kicked to the curb when another enters the arena.
- Keep your offer clean & simple. The more stipulations and demands you make, the less favorably your offer will be received.
If you have more questions about how to handle a multiple offer situation from the seller or buyer's perspective, just let us know!
Serving Warren County's residential real estate needs,
Liz and Bill aka BLiz
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