How to Win a Multi-Bid Situation
When the market is hot, which it is right now, buyers have to have a few extra tricks up their sleeves to get the house they want.
Photo by Scott Graham
Here are some good strategies to use to help when you’re in a good old fashioned bidding war:
- Be prepared! Have your pre-approval letter in place. You can even get a couple letters, say in $25,000 increments. Then you can give whichever one makes the most sense with your offer. Also, it can help to be working with a local bank. Many sellers and listing agents would prefer to be working with a lender they actually know and not a cog in a wheel in a massive lending operation in Michigan or Texas (and yes, I’m talking about you--Quicken and USAA).
- Come strong and come hard. Make your best offer, knowing that you may have to pay above the asking price. When you go on a first date, do you dress up and plan just enough to keep someone interested? Or do you go above and beyond? This not the time to do the bare minimum.
- Reign in those contingencies. In a multi-bid situation, the fewer contingencies, the better your offer looks. You don’t have to get rid of the inspection contingency, but you could limit it in terms of the items to be “contingent”, a dollar figure, shortening the time frame, or more.
**Bonus tip! Don’t think that you’ll be able to do significant post-inspection negotiations. If there were three offers, it’s pretty likely that the other two are still looking for a house.**
- Write a love letter. Hey, it helps sometimes. Tell the seller what you love about their house, and a little about yourself.
- Show them the money. Make a big deposit. Or, make it non-refundable at a certain point. Or, how about sharing your credit score, your employment history, even some of your financial records with the sellers so they know that you’re able to buy their house. For that matter, give them your resume. They’ll get to know you. And maybe that professional network will help you.
- Use an escalation clause. Promise to pay more than another offer. Best to talk this strategy with your Green Light Real Estate agent, because sometimes this confuses sellers and sellers’ agents. It’s not really that complicated, but still.
- And the best...don’t have a bidding war! Your agent can just call the sellers’ agent and ask “Hey, these people want to buy the house. What will it take for the sellers go with them?” Honestly, it might be another $5000, or that the seller gets to leave the basement furniture. Big deal! If you get into a bidding war, you’re easily paying that much more anyway. Plus that bidding war is a zillion times more stressful.
These are just a few ways to help buyers get the house in a hot market.
For more details, more strategies, and more ways to make sure that you get your house,
call 802-225-6425 and speak with any of our awesome agents and brokers
Or email Info@GreenLight-RealEstate.com.
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Can't get enough of this multi-bid info? We get it, that's why we also made this easy to digest Youtube video on the topic. Enjoy!