Buying A Home
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Multiple Offers - HELP!!
We are in contract with our house and are looking to make an offer on our dream home tomorrow. We just found out that there are 2 other offers on the property. We want this house so badly. Has anyone ever been in this situation and won.
Any and all advice and positive thoughts appreciated!!
Re: Multiple Offers - HELP!!
How badly do you want the house? Put your $$ where your mouth is - and give full price or more depending on your location and what has been the trend lately. Ask for only an acceptable inspection contingency - no closing assistance or dates for closing. THe ball is in your court to bend to the sellers and other bidders.
ETA: Why wait until tomorrow? Do it today!
We have a preapproval letter and I also wrote a letter letting the sellers know about my family and how much we want the house. We are putting at least 20% down with a 30 yr fixed mortgage and we arent asking for any concessions.
We arent putting the offer in today because the sellers realtor is having the buyers realtors come and present offers in person tomorrow night starting at 5 (my realtor is going last).
We will go full asking price but we are going in about $20k under asking so we have negotiating room.
I just hate to gamble - this sucks.
Any other thoughts?!?!
I wouldnt go in less than full asking if you are willing to pay that. There are typically no negotiation when you have multiple offers. I would assume the sellers will take the best option (either all cash or the highest offer with little contingencies). The ball is in their court and I would go in with your strongest and best offer. I doubt they come back to one of you to negotiate.
Offering $20K below the asking price for "negotiating room" could bite you. If they're getting other offers and one of those is higher than yours, they could just reject yours flat out. If you want the place that badly, go all in or even a couple thousand above the asking price to sweeten the deal.
It really depends how badly you want the house.
I agree. I don't think you really have the luxury of 20k under asking with other offers on the table.
No, unfortunately. We were in several multiple offer situations and lost all of them. We finally got our house by being really quick, and by giving the sellers everything they asked for, no negotiating. Full price, and 4 month escrow, even though I wanted to move like yesterday. Agreement on that was immediate, and we signed the contract a couple hours before the first competing offer came in. You figure, statistically anytime there's more than 2 offers, more people lose than win.
You'll really help yourself out if you can try to lay off the "dream home" label. It's not a dream, it's a real house, and there are more out there if this one doesn't work out. The "dream" label just adds pressure -- pressure to get it, pressure for it to be everything you hoped for, etc., etc. I don't think that label does anybody any good, with houses, jobs, colleges, etc.
We were "this close" to being in a multiple offer situation (ironically, they other potential buyer decided at the last minute to put their offer on another house in the neighborhood--one that we had seriously considered as well). We were prepared to put in our "best and final" offer. We would have ended up paying more for the house than we ultimately did, but it would have been worth it to us for a few reasons.
1. We really wanted the house. We had searched a LOT and this one fit every one of our requirements.
2. We didn't want to put in a lower offer only to lose out to an offer that was potentially less than we were ultimately willing to pay--a "no regrets" strategy.
3. We knew what the house was worth and even at our top price, we were still getting a really good deal on the home.
My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
Ask your agent about putting in an escalation clause. It basically says that you will pay $xxx (usually $500 or $1,000) over the highest competing net offer (meaning that it has to take seller assist with closing cost into account) up to a max sale price of $xxx,xxx.
This is what I was going to suggest.
If you don't go this route, go in with your highest and best. Don't start out lower. In a multiple offer, you may not get a chance to negotiate.
Ditto this or your max offer. This is not a negotiating situation. This is a time to beat the other bidders.
Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions.
What's crazy about this situation is that last week my home (which has been on the market since the summer) was in a bidding war with 3 offers and we went with the highest bid.
Turn around and now are are in a 3 way bidding war on the house we want to buy. Real estate is crazy. In this situation they are doing first offer, counter offer and then best and final offer (which is what we did on our house last week). So the $20k below asking is our first and we gave our agent the power to go up to $1k over asking (to make it a round number).
We will find out either late tonite or tomorrow if we get the house.
I realize I am probably too late and I sure hope that you got the property!!!! Good luck! Still, I thought I'd share a few tips based on my experiences as a Realtor in Silicon Valley. We have been dealing with multiple offer situations since the late 1990's.
How to make your offer as strong as possible:
Include your Pre-approval letter (pre-qual will not cut it in competition)
Include a copy of your intial deposit and proof of funds. Your initial deposit should be strong (in my area, it is typically 3%).
Shorten the contingency times that you can.
Request a copy of any disclosures and reports that may be available in advance. Read them and return signed copies with your offer.
Be flexible in regards to the sellers wants (ie length of escrow, if possible).
Do not ask for the sellers to pay for small items (such as home warranties). This is a small item but shows the sellers that you are trying to make it easy on them. They cost about $500 but it is worth so much more to waive them or pay for them yourself.
Go in at your top price. Do not expect a counter offer. If there are a lot of offers, a seller will often pick one to work with rather than doing a multiple counter offer. So, bring your top game. You would hate to hear that an offer was accepted that was $5k more than yours and you would have paid $10k more. Not worth it.
If the seller has identified an escrow co, use it. Not worth arguing over to change.
Provide a cover letter that talks about how well qualified you are and what you love about the home. Also include a small bio in the letter. I usually write the cover letter but it can be from the buyers too.
It is great that the listing agent is hearing offers and that your agent is going. That is great! Offers can be submitted in a number of ways but it means so much as a listing agent to get to meet the agent on the other side and get to know a bit about the person you may be working with.
And when all is said and done, if you don't get the offer...don't give up. This is the hardest part: saying no to someone. It isn't easy. Hang in there!
Good luck! Hope this helps some
Lighthouse State Beach, Santa Cruz.
Good luck! We've lost the last bidding war we were in despite offering full asking price, working completely on the seller's timeline on every single aspect, making the entire process as convenient for the seller as possible, and asking a minimal amount of seller contributions towards closing costs.
We're back to square one again...
Please let us know how yours turns out!
WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!!!!!!!
We went to asking price for our best and final offer and it was accepted!!!!!!!
I am so happy that we arent going to be homeless!!! The inspection is this weekend and I cant wait to go back inside a really know that this will be my families home
Congrats! That's awesome!
We were in several bidding wars, but they all went for well over asking.