Multiple Offers On Your Home?

Multiple offers mean you priced your house right because more than one buyer is making an offer to purchase your San Fernando Valley real estate. Your San Fernando Valley Realtor will present the offers to you and explain the price, terms and contract contingencies so you can decide which offer is the best for your situation. If you are not represented by a Realtor, then you should consult with your real estate attorney.

Factors to Consider

Every seller's motivation for selling is different so depending on your circumstances not every offer is necessarily going to work for you. This is where the expertise of your Realtor is beneficial to you. Your Realtor can help you counter out any items that you do not agree with and add any items that you want to address in the contract. Factors to consider include the following:

Price
Is the buyer paying cash or obtaining financing?
Amount of the earnest money down payment
Contract contingencies
Closing date
Buyer's motivation. Is the buyer purchasing the home to live in or for an investment?

Once you have considered all the above factors, then you have the following choices to make:

Accept the best offer
Respond by countering to all offers at once letting each buyer know that they are in a multiple offer situation
Only respond to offers you like
Respond to one offer at a time
Do not respond to any of the offers

Advantages to Seller

The advantages of multiple offers to sellers are:

Multiple offers create an atmosphere of competition between your buyers. As a result, you may receive a higher price for your home, and you have more choices.

Why Multiple Offers Can Back Fire?

One thing to keep in mind when you have multiple offers on your San Fernando Valley real estate is that buyers do not like to get into bidding wars. Because it is a buyer's market right now, most buyers would rather find another property than over bid for your Sherman Oaks, Encino, Van Nuys or North Hollywood real estate.
Be careful about countering too high over your asking price, unless your asking price is way below market value. Today's savvy buyers will not over pay for the home because they are educated about San Fernando Valley home prices. Buyers recognize that there are other homes available that also meet their criteria in the Encino, Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys and North Hollywood areas.

So avoid being greedy if you receive multiple offers because it could back fire on you, and you might lose all your offers as a result of the buyers walking away. Also, you cannot expect to receive a price substantially over market value if your buyer is obtaining financing because the house will not appraise, and the buyer will not be able to get a loan to purchase your home.

In this market, the smartest strategy is to take the offer that is closest to your asking price and the home's true market value with the best terms that work for all parties.