With real estate markets continuing to rebound all across the U.S., and the busy spring real estate season approaching, more and more buyers will find themselves in multiple offer situations. Here are three tips for dealing:
- Make contingency periods as short as possible. Keep your due diligence, financing and appraisal periods short to create less risk for the seller. Work closely with your lender and provide as much info upfront to ensure quick financing and appraisal contingency time frames can be met.
- Be flexible with the close date. While usually a quicker closing is most appealing to a seller, that might not always be the case. Have your agent pry the other agent for details prior to submitting the offer. Maybe the sellers need more time. Or perhaps a lease-back scenario works best for them. Bottom line: be as flexible as possible to the seller’s needs to win a bidding war.
- Write a letter. I’ve used this tactic multiple times and it works. One buyer’s offer was slightly lower than a competing offer, but after writing a compelling letter about how much they loved the seller’s home, the seller accepted the slightly lower offer. The sellers saw how much my client loved the home and wanted them to have it.
These are just a few tips when buying in a competitive market. I also always recommend consulting a real estate professional (like me!) for more info.