Multiple Offers...what does that really mean?

You see it/hear it all the time - this house was sold "with multiple offers"!  On its face that phrase is pretty easy to understand, but why does it change the complexity of your local real estate transaction?

 

When a buyer finds a house they like, they work with their real estate agent (who hopefully is a REALTOR®) to craft their offer to purchase. In Pennsylvania, the Standard Agreement of Sale is 12 pages and includes many areas where buyers have to make decisions about what they want to convey to the seller. The most basic of these decisions is the offer price - which can be below, at, or above the number suggested by the seller.  

 

When the buyer has made all the choices required in the purchase agreement, they sign their name and submit it to the seller's agent, who is duty-bound to present that contract to the seller for review. Every agreement, even those not likely to get approved, must be presented as it is always the seller's choice to sell or not sell.

 

In this market, with very few homes on the market and many buyers looking to buy, the chances that more than one buyer will fill out the purchase agreement is high. This creates the "multiple offer" scenario. It is now the duty of the seller's agent to read each of the offers, determine what choices each buyer has made, and present them all to the seller. 

 

Listing agents at Quinn & Wilson are taught the best ways to evaluate multiple offer scenarios. Whether it be by spreadsheet or on paper, they quickly line up the choices each buyer has made; price, deposits, settlement date, etc.  There are many places where one buyer's decisions may be better for the seller than another, but there are also places where that decsion may be less advantageous to the seller. Especially with inspections. Where things get confusing is when the plusses and the minuses combine.

 

Once all the decisions of each buyer are lined up next to each other the agent then starts to highlight what items are in-line with the seller's objectives, and which may run againts the seller's objective. Then the agent meets the seller and highlights each one. By the time they sit down at the table with a seller, our agents have read each offer multiple times! They have also reviewed the financial documentation provided by each buyer, and have most likely spoken to the mortgage lender tied to each offer as well. 

 

Our Quinn & Wilson buyer agents are also trained to help with decision making. Making sure a buyer understands the implications of every decision on the purchase agreement is paramount; our buyer agents get most of their offers accepted because they know how to counsel buyers correctly. That comes from experience.

 

Advising a buyer or a seller in a multiple offer situation is important, and it is why having an agent with experience is critical. We have completed multiple-offer transactions in Montgomery, Bucks, and Philadelphia counties and we can certainly help sellers thinking about putting their home on the market or discouraged buyers who can't seem to get their offers accepted in this environment. 

 

Contact us if you want to learn more about multiple offers, and why it takes and experienced agent to achieve the best result.