In certain areas and prices ranges, multiple offer situations torment home buyers and excite lucky sellers.
Some segments of the Vienna real estate market have been attracting multiple offers. Recently, one of my client’s homes had six offers submitted before the Tuesday deadline.
Although one decided to withdraw their offer before the seller reviewed it, five offers were still on the table for my client to look at.
Now that’s a hot listing! Or more like that weekend’s home du jour!
Realtors can give their clients advice, but most buyers aren’t sure what happens in multiple offer situations once their offer is submitted. With that picture in mind, here is what happens.
A written offer needs to be submitted before an established deadline. If a deadline hasn’t been established, then have the buyer agent should call the owner’s listing agent. That brief conversation may shed valuable insight that, strategically, could help the buyer.
Here is a pre-offer checklist:
- Initialed and signed all contract pages and addenda
- Recheck all numbers, dates, and proper spellings (like the seller’s name)
- Include a copy of the Deposit check (bigger the better)
- Have lender create a current pre-approval letter (make it specific to this house)
Confirm and Re-Confirm
With each offer including 23 or more pages, and the amount of information on each unique yet similar, it makes sense to have your buyer’s agent confirm that the seller’s or listing agent has received the paperwork with a phone call.
Once again, that person-to-person contact may shed valuable insight. Plus lobby for your offer!
If the deadline is getting close, then the buyer’s agent should reconfirm that the listing agent has the offer (or contract) ready to present. Maybe, sending a one page summary with bullet points can help navigate the storm (and build confidence).
Follow this helpful summary page format:
- $ your offer price
- Down payment and Deposit amounts
- Type of financing, name of bank, contact person
- Settlement Date
- Any special terms or unique contract deletions about your offer
What is a big problem?
When agents get multiple offers on a property, each containing 20 pages, it is likely that they are not prepared to present the offers to the seller in an organized way.
And the biggest problem may be that your offer never gets considered, possibly never seen by the seller.
Make it easy. My recommendation is to make sure the cover page outlines the important aspects. Since all the offers will likely be written using the same NVAR standard sales contract, make it super-simple for the agent to summarize those points and relay a positive, professional, organized offer.
Home sellers need to feel confident that you are “the one” and are quick to dismiss paperwork that is sloppy or unprofessional.
Sitting at the Table
I have been lucky enough to be at the table with seller clients who are perplexed by multiple offers on their homes.
These days most sellers will Google the buyer. Maybe find their LinkedIn page, or see their Facebook profile.
Then they will Google the mortgage lender, and loan officer.
They may even Google the Realtor.
All of the online information that an average person can discover in a few keystrokes can make or break you. Have you looked at your lender’s web site, your agent’s? And are your Facebook privacy setting set up properly? Does your LinkedIn profile show your current job title?
And if you are a seller, remember that you need to respond to offers quickly or the best buyers may walk away not wanting to get into a bidding war.
Making the decision
Sellers will select one offer to accept or to make a counter-offer. Sellers have a tough choice but need to work quickly to come to an agreement.
Sometimes those first buyers get cold-feet, and then the second choice offer becomes the primary contract.
The decision process is never easy. Ultimately, a meeting of the minds will happen.
For one lucky buyer…. that is.
