Writing an Offer on a Home in Northern Virginia? Don't Wait for a Second Chance to Put Your Best Offer Forward.
Anyone working with buyers in Northern Virginia for the 2012 spring market knows that competition is fierce. We are in a seller's market. There are not enough homes to meet buyer demand. As such, there are some buyers out there that feel they are beating their heads against a wall. They write offer after offer only to come 
up empty handed. And yet, when they write an offer on a property, they give it less than their best shot. Why? I guess they assume that they will be given a second shot if there are other offers on the property. In this market, if you are writing on ANYTHING, you have to assume that if it doesn't have another offer yet, it will get them.
Case in point, yesterday I put a Short Sale condo on the market in South Riding. Last spring, this Short Sale with two banks would've waited at least a month before getting an offer. After less than 24 hours on the market, I opened my inbox to find three offers.
I let all the agents know what time I'd be presenting offers this afternoon. One agent (we'll call her Joan) wanted a chance to tweak her buyer's offer and asked that we delay our scheduled time to review the offers. Not happening. What was funny was that all the offers were really close to one another, and one just stood out because it gave more time for approval and had no contingencies. When I emailed Joan with the bad news that her buyer lost the bidding, she fired back with an email stating this is why she wanted a chance to tweak the offer. Apparently, her buyer would've been willing to pay significantly more. If that's the case, then that's the number she should've written down to begin with. In this case, it truly wouldn't have made a difference, but now Joan's buyer will always wonder what if she had made THAT offer.
In the competitive market the Northern Virginia buyers are finding themselves in now, they should ALWAYS be putting their best foot forward first. Don't wait, assuming you may have a second shot at putting your best offer forward.
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