Earlier this week, I got a call from an agent who showed a listing I have last week. His people loved it, he said, but the husband was out of town until the end of the week. They planned to make an offer Friday or Saturday. This afternoon, Saturday, as I was driving to my Mother's 85th birthday party, he called to say he was sending it via MongoFax and would like to present it over the phone. I explained that I'd be available late this afternoon to take a look at it and would call him then.
Then 20 miles down the Baltimore Washington Parkway, my Blackberry's ear bud tickled my ear once again. It was a second agent calling to say she was leaving the same listing with her clients and was writing an offer. And what did my sellers need as a time frame. An hour or so later, her offer was in my Blackberry's mailbox.
When I got back and looked at the two offers, it became clear that the first buyers wanted to play Let's Make a Deal. And it's an offer that might have worked as the only thing on the table. And it would have been if they had written right away. But when a second offer comes in, the dynamic totally changes.
Here is Washington, the market is not exactly red hot. But it's nowhere near blue cold either. And buyers who see a good house can no longer assume they can hang the sellers out to dry, negotiating the thing to death. While multiple offer situations are not every day events any more, they do happen.
If you come in way below the asking price, thinking you have weeks and weeks to go back and forth, you could lose a house you love.
And if you love it, it will probably appeal to other people as well. And if it is in good shape and in a popular DC neighborhood, Let's Make a Deal may not be the best strategy.
With condos, you might be able to pull it off. In the Virginia and Maryland suburbs, ditto.
But if you want to buy a house in DC, you snooze, you very well could lose!
It's a thrill a minute to have multiple offers going on! I love it on the buying and listing side. No lose for you, Pat! Whew-Hew!
Pat...Thanks for sharing the good news. I'm feeling a bit more optimistic as I had two appointments today, one tomorrow, and another for Friday. For Lake Anna this is better than it has been for a while.
Cheers,
Kathleen
Pat, Some sellers aren't playing let's make a deal with my buyers and are waiting it out to see what the Spring looks like. Recently, my buyers seem to have more of a sense of urgency than just two or three weeks ago. They've all said something along the lines of prices, rates and selection are good and it seems like a good time to buy.
The market is swinging fast. A few months ago you could submit and have a pretty good chance of being the only offer. Now, if you wait, you stand a pretty good chance of losing out. I had an agent call me Friday on a listing, said he was going to write. Never heard from him again, but got 3 other offers, which I will submit to the bank tomorrow morning. What is he going to tell his client Monday night when it is all over?
Folks don't understand that Real Estate is a LOCAL phenomenon! I lost more than 1 deal last year - in multiple-offer situations in 2007.
It may be a buyers market - and an extreme one in PARTS of the country - but in parts of DC - things still move - many at close to full price.