Multiple Offers: What you can do.

By Mark Phoenix posted July 8, 2020

According to the Realtor’s Confidence Index survey* conducted in May 2020, nearly 3 offers were presented for each home sold.  That is a lot of competition buyers have!

Why?

In part, the existence of what real estate broker’s term “multiple offers” is explained by the pent-up demand resulting from the mandatory lock-down in NYS, at a time when the “spring real estate market” has historically occurred.  Another contributing factor to the existence of multiple offers, is the fact that the Capital Region real estate market has experienced relatively low levels of available homes for sale for several years.  The mandatory lock-down only exacerbated the problem when the phased re-opening of the Capital Region occurred.

What should buyers and sellers do?

The existence of “multiple offers” presents a fair number of challenges for both buyers and sellers.  Buyers who face this circumstance should consult an experienced real estate professional who will guide, counsel, and create a strategy for negotiation based upon your circumstances and wishes.  This can be a stressful period.  However, the prospective home buyer should find a reasonable degree of comfort and confidence in the strategy developed by their real estate professional.

On the opposite side of the consideration, this can be a stressful process for sellers, as well.  A seller must sort through each offer and carefully consider the positives and negatives of each offer, from their point of view.  The seller can be overwhelmed by multiple offers effectively asking “Well, which offer do I accept?”. 

What matters most?

What do sellers value most when considering an offer?  Is it price?  What about conditions found in the contract?  Terms?  Truthfully, the answer is often not what you might think.  While price certainly drives the decision for some sellers, the timing of the closing, items included, and other factors can influence which offer a seller accepts. 

What’s next?

Consult a real estate broker who is experienced in counseling buyers and sellers through this type of real estate market dynamic. 

If you have a question, simply click the “Contact Me” button, and I’ll be in touch with you shortly.

*The April 2020 survey was sent to 50,000 Realtors® who were selected from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) more than 1.4 million members through simple random sampling and to 9,070 respondents in the previous three surveys who provided their email addresses.  There were 4,232 respondents to the online survey which ran from June 1-10, 2020, of which 1,749 had a client. Among those who had a client, the survey’s maximum margin of error for proportion estimates is two percent at the 95 percent confidence level. The margins of error for subgroups are larger. NAR weights the responses by a factor that aligns the sample distribution of responses to the distribution of NAR membership.