Jun 05

5 Strategies to Winning a Multiple Offer Situation as a Buyer

POSTED BY Colin Spann:

Buy or Sell a Home with Charleston's #1 Team

Our market is on fire right now, and many listings are selling in the same week that they’re listed with multiple offers attached to them. If you’re a buyer, here are five strategies that will enable you to win a multiple offer situation.

The first and most important strategy is to make sure your agent makes friends with the seller’s agent. This is a people business. You may think it’s all about contracts, but it’s not. If your agent can connect with the other agent and convey how strong of a buyer you are and find out what the competing offers are, that will give you your best shot at winning.

The second strategy is to decide what your highest and best number is. At what point are you willing to walk away because the house is no longer of value to you? Come up with this number ahead of time. It may even be above asking price. If you don’t know this number ahead of time, you’re liable to get emotional and overpay.

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Play to win and make your offer personal.

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Third, play to win. Get your agent to find out what the most important thing is to the seller as far as selling the house. It’s not always price—sometimes it’s the timeline involved. For example, if the seller needs to be out of the house by a certain date and you know that fact and the other buyers don’t, you can position your offer to give them exactly what they want.

Fourth, make it personal. I always recommend to any of my clients involved in a multiple offer situation that they write a letter to the seller expressing their appreciation of the house, information about their family, and other things of that nature. Many times, sellers will choose a lower-priced offer based on these letters because they felt more connected to that particular buyer.

Finally, have your finances in order. If you’re not paying in cash, have your lender call the listing agent and tell them how qualified you are. I don’t put a lot of stock into pre-approval letters, but if a lender called me and sang the praises of their buyer, I would be more apt to choosing that buyer’s offer.

If you have any questions about this topic or you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in our market, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We look forward to helping you.

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