The luxury real estate market is white-hot! February closed sales were up 55% over last year, and inventory was down 34.1%. These conditions are creating an extremely competitive marketplace and pushing prices upward. We’re also seeing multiple offers on many of the sales happening right now, especially for our sellers. Here is some advice on how to best deal with multiple-offer situations.
If you are a seller and have multiple offers on your property, it can be very exciting. Commonly, when there are multiple offers, each buyer will receive a response from the seller asking for their “highest and best.” This is a typical strategy used by agents to get buyers to put their best offer forward. However, it’s a lazy strategy. To get the highest price possible, your best bet is to use a multiple counteroffer form to counter each buyer individually. This form enables sellers to respond to multiple offers without getting bound to any single offer (unless they sign off on it). Asking buyers to blindly increase their bids rarely results in the best offer possible. To push the envelope, you’re better off asking for what you want.
The best way for buyers to handle a multiple-offer situation is to get educated. I always say the same thing to buyers: “I will never push you to buy, but I will push you to get educated.” You have to know the market and your options, so you can make a knowledgeable and confident decision when the right opportunity comes along. In this market, if you get too carried away trying to negotiate a lower price, just know that you might lose the property. Sometimes buyers shy away from multiple-offer situations because they don’t want to end up in a bidding war. This is understandable, but just because there are other offers on the table doesn’t necessarily mean they are good offers. They might have poor terms or a low price, so make the best offer you are comfortable with and be ready to move fast.
Whether you’re buying or selling in this white-hot market, you know how to reach us if you want results.
