"Oops, how did I just get boxed in like this?"
Your agent rings you — the first offer on your home just pinged their inbox. Excitement, relief, and anticipation swirl through your mind. The buyer’s offer, the agent shares, is above asking price. Should you accept this first offer or wait and see if something better comes along?
Realize True Market Price
Without a seller deadline, aggressive agents will write the offer with the expectation of blocking out other agents and potential buyers from seeing the property. Most will expire their offer in 24 hours -- and sometimes much less than that -- to force the seller's hand.
In this scenario, the buyers' agent will usually write the offer at or above a listing price. This way, the agent is fulfilling the request of the seller's price realization and therefore, not leaving the seller with much other reason for not accepting their offer. The seller may be satisfied in their own mind, but they may not have realized the true market price discovery.
This is where an experienced agent with negotiation skills can help you set your best strategy..
Maximize Your Number of Offers
In this current competitive environment, most seller's are placing an expiration date and time for an offer to be due from buyers. This is where an experienced agent can help a seller maximize price and get the very best terms from a large number of buyers.
Most listings in today's environment will set a 3 to 4 day window (over a weekend) to maximize the number of showings by publishing the date and time that the offers will be presented to the seller. Multiple showing days and times allow more buyers to see the property. This creates a highly competitive situation to maximize price and achieve favorable terms by requiring the buyers to provide their "highest and best" offer by the deadline. With the offers in hand, the agent presents the offers to the seller and advises as to a competitive comparison of prices and terms.
This model ensures that there is a line of potential buyers in waiting in the case that the first deal does not go through. It eliminates the need to re-list the home which can come with questions of why - such as home defects and damages from marketing skepticism.
Maintain Your Seller's Control
In this current listing trend, sellers are able to know that through the listing period that they control the competition between the buyers allowing them to realize their best outcome. After all, you are selling most likely your largest asset - so stay in control.
Article by Scott A Jacobs