You’ve been looking at houses for months; you’re set up with your real estate agent to be notified the moment a house comes on the market that meets your specifications, but it seems that nothing you’ve looked at so far fits the bill. Then, it happens. You open the front door and everything clicks; nice yard, three car garage, granite counter tops, enough bedrooms for the kids plus an office, and it smells like fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. You pause momentarily to wonder why, then immediately proceed to instruct your agent to write up an offer. Yes! You found it! But as your Realtor gets off the phone with the listing agent, you are brought back down to earth from your real estate nirvana by this simple phrase, “There are multiple offers”.
Depending on where you live, multiple offer situations can be quite common. They can also make an already emotional experience even more so by throwing a dose of uncertainty into the process. While competing with other buyers who may be just as emotionally vested as you are can be a daunting task, the stress can be minimized by trusting in your agent, and the likelihood that your offer gets accepted can be increased by making your offer as appealing as possible. In many cases this doesn’t simply mean offering the most money.
The Wall Street Journal breaks down a recent report showing the most effective strategies when competing against multiple offers. You can read the article here.