My friend and top producing colleague, Kendyl Young, wrote a great blog post last week about how to deal with multiple offer situations. It was so succint that I asked and received her permission to re-post it here (the italics are mine):
Last week I told you about a hot Glendale Home on Ridge. It was 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and had a pool with a lovely view. My friend, Anne, listed it for $499,000. She had multiple offers. The home is now in pending status and I thought a few details of what happened could help those of you who are active buyers.
First of all, Anne set a low price on purpose. This home was sold as a trust and the attorney wanted an auction-like scenario. Frankly, she could have created that with a price of $599,000- but $499,000 worked.
She received 40 offers.
Now, Anne is a true professional and she is not about to tell me what price was accepted, but she indicated that it was “high”.
There are some useful insights to be learned, here.
* With proper marketing and exposure, it is impossible to underprice a home
* There are a lot of buyers who have the ability to buy- don’t assume you are the only one.
* If you think it is a great deal everyone else does, too.
* Processing 40 offers is an insane amount of work. Make an offer designed to appeal to the listing agent as much as the seller.
* Know home values in the area you want to buy. Your offer should reflect exactly what you think the home is worth and not a reaction to the list price. (I would add that a low offer probably won't work and may not even get you to the counter-offer stage. Brutal, but true. - Judy)
So here is a question for you. If the home of your dreams has 40 offers- what would you do? Make an offer or walk away? Would the number of offers influence your feeling about that home’s value?
I would make a offer of what my max price/max down was for that house. If I really wanted the house I would most likely increase my percentage down to a high number (50% +) to ease loan approvals concerns. No harm in making a offer as higher offers could fall through for various reasons.
ReplyDeleteThe number of offers would have no influence on my estimate of the homes value. A feeding frenzy does not change the economic fundamentals.
TonyM