I think that more areas in the country are Sellers markets today. The term "Seller's Market" is a 
point when the inventory of property or certain ranges of price or areas become scarce. Supply and demand means that there are more buyers and not enough property to meet their demands.
We all see sad stories about showing your buyer client home after home that they lose to people who acted faster or paid more. I have been the Realtor who had to tell disappointed buyer clients of mine bad news regarding a lost deal one time too many.
I had heard of the Escalation Clause before but never used it or been in a transaction with this line written in a contract until recently. I want to share this information with people and maybe save some frustration. You still have to act quickly but you may get the home you want.
I put a property on the market last week and priced it to sell. The comparative property was looked at very closely and a decision was made to set the price at a competitive level. The response was overwhelming.
The house I am talking about that I listed for my seller client had over 30 showings in a period of 36 hours and the appointments started flooding in 5 minutes after the house went on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). From all the people who looked at this home came 9 contracts. They ranged from way under what the price was to quite a bit more than the list price but some had not so great financing. I am talking about low amounts of earnest money and 95% financing. That can be scary for a seller.
The people who got the winning offer did a couple of things that caused my seller to choose their offer. The most important thing was one line that said "$1500 over the highest bid up to "X" amount". They had a good down payment and an amount or earnest money that made you believe they were serious.
Think about using an escalation clause the next time you are trying to get a home for your buyer clients and you know you will not be the only one interested. Please feel free to ask some non specific questions about how this went down and I will answer. This will be my approach the next time I have serious buyers who do not want to lose a house they wrote an offer on.
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