There isn’t one set method for dealing with multiple offers in this constantly shifting market, it comes down to individualizing a plan for each listing.
By Real Estate Coach Darryl Davis, CSP
Kenny Rogers wasn’t singing about real estate offers when he crooned, “Know when to hold ‘em”, but this current market has most homes seeing multiple offer scenarios, and one of our Power Agents® recently asked for a recommendation on The best way to present offers to ensure it’s fair to buyers while safeguarding the seller’s interests — accept them quickly, or hold off until a certain date?
The Two Options
There are two different options to choose from in this current market: You can either consider each offer as it’s presented, or you can alert all agents that you are going to hold all offers until a pre-determined date to go through each one after the week is done.
How Do You Choose?
There is no “normal” in this market, so you must do what will be best for that particular house based on the pricing category you are in. When you know a house is going to take longer to sell, I would recommend taking each offer into consideration as it comes in. If you know the house is going to sell in its first week and will have multiple offers on it from day one, then alert all the agents that you are going to hold all offers from opening day until the day you choose (say, Sunday evening), then you and the sellers will sit down to review them all.
For some additional tips for buyers who are facing the multiple offer scenario, check out Realtor.com’s article: “Multiple Offers on a House: Insight for Buyers Facing a Bidding War.”
A Shift in The Market
You may start seeing things changing a little in your individual markets, which is why we need a more personalized approach. It could be that the market is just beginning to slow in your area, which means that holding offers isn’t going to be suitable for a home that may not see a lot of offers to begin with.
Let’s say it’s Monday and you are going to hold all offers until Sunday. However, first thing Tuesday morning, more inventory starts coming into the market, and the buyers are going to have more choices on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and they’re going to say, “I don’t want to wait until Sunday, and I like this other house, so I’m going to put an offer in on that one instead.”
The Takeaway
The decision to hold offers depends heavily on how much competition the house has, and when we keep in mind our duty to the seller’s best interests, that means we need to constantly evaluate each home and make our decisions according to what’s best for each seller and their home.
What’s Next?
Are you ready to start taking things to the Next Level®? Doing what’s in the best interests of our sellers is the very heart of our business, so knowing the options and when to use each is key!
We’ve put lots of tools and training in place for our Power Agents®. Whether you need to coach sellers through a difficult decision, help them in a multiple offer scenario, or give them confidence in their decisions, you will find help in the Power Program® Classroom!
Not yet a Power Agent®? Click here to learn more about how you can access these powerful strategies as well as hundreds of marketing, prospecting, and listing tools – live weekly coaching, podcasts, webinars, expert guest talks, and more!
About Your Author Darryl Davis, CSP, Speaker, Coach, Author
Darryl has been spoken to, trained, and coached more than 100,000 real estate professionals around the globe. He is a bestselling author for McGraw-Hill Publishing, and his book, How to Become a Power Agent in Real Estate tops Amazon’s charts for most sold book to real estate agents. His real estate training system The Power Program®, proven to help agents double their production over their previous year. Darryl is currently hosting weekly free webinars to help agents navigate change and grow their business. Learn more at www.DarrylSpeaks.com/Online-Training.
