If you are a buyer right now in Northern Virginia, you may notice more homes for sale, higher days on market and a general slowing down of the pace for sales. But a market is an ever moving creature and even within one city or one subdivision, the "market" can be different depending on the house and how it is marketed. I have a listing that was originally listed in early September, the buyer got cold feet and we just put it back on. We had 9 showings in 3 days, Wednesday - Friday. Two of those showings garnered offers. One came on Thursday and set a deadline to respond of 6:00 pm Friday. It was a great offer. Full price, solid financing, we were motivated to take it. When offer #2 called, I told them about the first one, which my sellers had given me permission to do. I told the agent the deal. Agent #2 comes in Friday morning with a 20K under full price offer, weak financing terms and no approval letter. I immediately tell the agent that the offer won't be accepted as it stands and is she sure this is the best she can do considering there is another one on the table? No response. We move forward with offer #1 and ratify later that night. Agent #2 sends me an approval letter showing her buyer can indeed afford the full asking price, at 10:00 the next morning, but no change in the contract price. I respond that we'd already ratified the first offer.
I really made it easy for this agent. I didn't play games, was super transparent and responsive. I gave her all the information she needed upfront to compete for this listing.
If you are a buyer looking right now, don't assume that the house you want won't be wanted by many others. Yes the market is sluggish compared to spring, but this house had exceptional marketing, was priced spot on, was well staged and maintained and had features all buyers want.
Make sure you ask your agent if there are other offers or if there is a deadline for submitting. There is no point in even writing an offer under the way I described above. Sure, it typically never hurts to try to negotiate, but know the circumstances before you do.
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