Here are three tips to help you pick the best offer of the bunch.

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In August 2020, over 55% of nationwide homes listed on the market received multiple offers. A multiple-offer situation can be stressful for some sellers because they’re not quite sure how to respond to them and maximize their opportunity. If you list your home and find yourself in a multiple-offer situation, here are three tips to help you to pick the best one:

1. Organize the offers on a spreadsheet so you can see how they compare. Make sure it’s a simple format that lists each buyer’s name and the details of their offer. If you’d like an example copy of this spreadsheet, get in touch with me and I’d be happy to provide you with one.

2. Make sure your listing agent has done their research. It’s important to know every detail of every offer. If an offer is contingent on another home selling, for example, find out where the buyer is in that process and get a copy of the contract to review. If an offer is contingent on financing, your listing agent should have a conversation with the buyer’s lender.

Any buyer who wants to win the house in a bidding war should be willing to do this. The lender cannot disclose any private financial information, but they can at least give you an indication of whether they have a complete file on their client or they simply took a pre-approval application online or over the phone (there’s a HUGE difference). A simple Google search of your buyers never hurts either.

“It’s important to know
every detail of every offer.”

3. Make a strategy that maximizes the opportunity. Once every offer is clearly laid out, you can come up with your strategy and make a counteroffer on any of the bids. Will you negotiate with the highest and best offer or with multiple offers? You can also request the highest and best offer from everyone. In that case, you’ll typically set a deadline for the buyers to submit their offers.

It’s up to you as to whether or not you want to give your agent permission to share the details of your top offer with other competing buyer’s agents. This can be a sound strategy to get the other bids to match or beat your top offer.

As always, if you have questions about this topic or there’s anything else I can assist you with, don’t hesitate to call or email me. I’d love to help you.