Good morning, Scott... I think that part of the problem is that most agents, regardless of how long they've been in the business, have never experienced a market like the one we are seeing these days. As a result, they have no clue how to properly advise their clients, be they sellers or buyers, on how to make or review and accept offers in such a competitive environment.

Good morning Scott. Take solace in the fact you cannot fix STUPID. Move on! Enjoy your day.

Good morning, Scott Godzyk if a seller gets a clean deal at full list price, take it and run!!!! trying to shop an excellent offer to get a "pie in the sky" number that won't appraise is stupidity.... that's a buyer's agent getting cocky and not thinking.... and a listing agent who is trying to be the hero of the day.... just do the job properly and put a fair deal together.

Thanks, Scott, for sharing your experience.

The current market definitely provides challenges for prospective home buyers.

Hi Scott,
I don't think "mean" is the word... if ya know what I mean.  LOL

I am seeing the same thing here in the DC area - we need to keep the sellers' expectations realistic and their behavior in line

Great job...but why was the buyer not preapproved before?  Uggg

Hello Scott, It has been a common practice in my market for many years now to set an offer deadline. It sure helps set expectations.  

It takes calm and thoughtful decisions from agents and their clients right now. Sadly, there is far too much desperation going on, and far too many sellers in a very unique catbird's seat. It's an extremely challenging market. 

Good afternoon Scott Godzyk ,

Your ways make sense and is logical unfortunately our Austin market is neither. We have an EXTREME shortage of listings and they are getting offers 10-20% over list price and some are appraising because each month the sold prices are increasing that much. In Texas we has an Addendum to waive the Lenders appraial which makes it almost as good as a cash offer. My clients signed in early September to build a new home in the low $700,000. It has appraised 25% already and by the time it's finished in December how much more is anyones guess!!

This buying frenzy is interesting - especially in light of the "news" reports saying the economy is terrible and everyone is starving.

I can't imagine any scenario where 50 offers wouldn't provide at least a few viable offers.  Also, I can't imagine having to sort through 50 being received, requiring strength evaluation and prioritizion to ascertain which would accomplish the very best outcome for a seller.  There's more to an offer than highest price - Terms matter and sometimes need to be matched to seller requirements.  Add to it, that many buyers simply won't wait for extended periods of time for acceptance, and simply walk away in the waiting game process!

CONGRATULATIONS Scott, on having this blog FEATURED in the Old Farts Club group!  

Hi Scott- this seems to be a common thread I'm reading in posts here. ( Margaret Rome Baltimore 410-530-2400 and Joan Cox ) Why take offers that are so over the list and market price that the home will not appraise! 

Thanks to Kathy Streib for pointing me here.

It sounds like we are on the same page, Scott Godzyk 

50 offers is way over kill by a long shot. Who in the heck wants to waste everyones time knowing full well only one buyer will win the bid. No thanks. Agents and buyers should calm down and look at thing from a more rational stance.

Have been on both sides of this one.  My latest listing was on the market for 48 hours.  Had 26 offers and I'm still getting complaints about buyers not being able to see it or make offers.  Meanwhile, we got back to all of these offers by this morning.  We were going over them last night.

If the sellers had stopped it at 5 or 7 offers, they would have been happy, but what they got in the end of the two days was beyond belief and they would be foolish not to take.  And that was just 2 days with a set expectation.  It's madness out there right now.

Fantastic end to what had to be a very frustrating experience for those buyers... until they hired you!

In our market, we too are seeing lots of homes with lots of offers.  One local appraiser updated us on our market recently.  His numbers showed that even in this market there were still 40% of the homes sold at or below list price.  I think many of those homes with so many offers have priced their listing too low.  Yes, it is so tough to be a buyer right now.

Hi Scott Godzyk - just like looking at 50 houses, it is overload and has diminishing returns.  I agree with you.

Scott:

No doubt there are plenty of other similar stories given the feeding frenzy we are seeing in so many markets, and it seems to bring out some bad behavior in many. Thank goodness these buyers reached out to you and were able to finally achieve their goal, under much more pleasant circumstances.

Jeff

I often wonder if it is 'fun' for the agent to do this. It makes no sense, nor helpful to the seller. The prices do not go up offer by offer because everyone is just putting in what they hope is the best. Who's ego is bigger here? LA or seller?