Just The Way It Goes

Hi John,

Isn't it ironic.  I can tell you it happens on both sides of the deal, meaning, I had a bank-owned property listed that sat and sat, and then all of a sudden three offers (and I know your's wasn't one of them).  At the same time one of my clients made an offer on a property that had sat for over a year, and presto, two other offers came in...and on bank-owned properties no one is a backup offer...unless the bank says so.  Curious business, huh?

John, you're not alone! I can almost guarantee that the minute my client decides to write the offer is the moment the seller accepted another!LOL! I've had this happen a couple of times this year alone ($384,000 townhouse on the market for 15 months-SELLS the day I was going to write an offer!) Guess the market ISN'T as bad as everyone would like us to believe.

I had a similar thing happen with a listing...plenty of lookers (the price was right) but no takers...then a week before expiration we finally had an acceptable offer and signed. Then offers from everywhere started faxing in.

Go figure!

Good post!,Take care and good luck to you!

This happens all the time, and it's somewhat explainable. That's because people aren't as different from each other as they may want to believe. If a buyer settles on a particular home, using a certain set of criteria and looking within a specific time frame at all available inventory, it stands to reason that there are more than one buyer out there using the same criteria.

The thing is buyers never want to believe it. They think somebody is playing dirty ball and hiding facts from them. When the truth is multiple offers are common when the criteria allows them to be. Nobody is immune. If it's a good deal to you, it's a good deal to somebody else.

That's why I advise buyers NOT to sleep on it, NOT to wait but to write an offer NOW.

John:

Good experience.  Now, you can honestly tell future prospective buyers this story to create a sense of urgency.