I am preparing for my next buyer's tour here after barely being nudged out on a multiple offers bid last week on a bank-owned home for sale in Bellevue WA, only 3 miles from downtown Bellevue. We had our offer written and signed on Saturday, didn't submit it until Sunday evening. I knew there were two offers already, and more were expected. It was unknown if the bank would accept or counter, so we submitted our best offer with the pre-approval letter at the offering price.
Monday we learned we were in the top rung but not the highest offer, and yet my buyer had a strong profile and a sold home through their relocation company. Their move was certain, the Seattle job had already commenced. By Tuesday we learned the bank had countered the highest offer, and we didn't get the deal. The counter-offer was accepted on Wednesday, and the property went to pending status. 
Multiple offers make for a sobering situation. We are down to barely three months of housing inventory in the areas where we are looking, but in the price range of newer homes, the absorption rate of what is left is less than 2 months of supply. With a sharpened focus and new pre-approval letter in hand, we are determined not to miss our again, the buyer knows it is a tight market and having lost one already, we must manage the search and offer process carefully, with precise communications with the listing agents.
Our housing inventory has tightened here, the most notable class being homes built during 2007 or later, in what I hope is a phase that accompanies a rise in our home valuations. With builders having been slammed in their businesses these last four years, the small builders aren't able to spec homes anymore, banks aren't going to lend to them. They are still hurting after the recession squeezed them out. The larger builders are building and yet their plats are futher out, not in the close in high demand areas or best neighborhoods. There are very few new construction homes where a lot of these buyers want to be, only isolated opportunities.
My preview tour of the most likely homes in Bellevue has set us up for a good outing, and we'll be prepared to tender another offer right away. This is the time when having a ready and educated buyer is everything. There is a Chinese proverb that goes something like this: Good luck is the intersection of Preparedness meeting Opportunity. I am prepared, and have the right opportunity with the buyers being here and motivated. We are going to secure success. I know it.
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