I’m In a Real Estate Bidding War, Now What?

St. George Utah Real Estate Podcast with Jeremy Larkin

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After a well-known major “boom” and subsequent “bust”, the St. George Real Estate market has come roaring back in the in past 4 years, and with it? The dreaded (if you’re a Buyer) or coveted (if you’re a Seller) real estate “bidding war.” In today’s post we address what this means for both home Buyers and home Sellers, and how to best handle the situation. Home SELLERS: Navigating a Bidding War for Maximum Price and Minimum Hassle So, you have multiple offers on your home in St. George. Congratulations! That is fantastic. But what offer should you choose? The one with the most cash? Quickest closing? Nicest Buyers? Maybe. Let's discuss this for a moment. What you need to consider is what type of outcome is most important to you at the close of sale. There are three different routes you can take when this happens. Keep in mind that at The Larkin Group we’ve sold over 40 homes this year in bidding wars - so this guidance is coming from hard-worn battle experience. 1. You can accept one of the offers. You aren't required by law to respond to all offers on your home so if you see one that you cannot say “no” to, just accept it and move on. However, these things aren't usually so simple. 2. The second option is to counter each of the offers…yes as in ALL of them at once. You'll need an agent with good negotiation skills to do this, but it can pay off if you do so correctly. In this case you let the buyer know that there are multiple bids on your home and counter each with your desired terms. Even if all of the buyers accept your counteroffer, you have a designated time period to determine which of those offers you would like to accept.

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Asking for everyone's best offer can tend to scare people away.

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3. "Hit me with your best shot” – asking all Buyer for their “highest and best” offer. This works great when the market us ultra-hot because it drives the price up, but it also has the highest likelihood of scaring one or all buyers away.

These are the three options you have in a sticky multiple offer situation. There’s simply no substitute for experience when it comes to charting these waters so be sure to reach out to an experience real estate Pro who’s listed and sold (different than buying) many homes.

Home BUYERS: Navigating a Bidding War for the Least Cost and Maximum Lifestyle Benefit

Buying a home is very exciting. It’s like HGTV on virtual reality steroids! ☺ You meet with a great, trusted real estate advisor, go through a needs assessment, drive all over town, look at Zillow and Realtor.com, and finally, finally find the perfect house. Only then do you find out that you are bidding against other buyers. Crap. Multiple offer situations happen all the time, and right now, bidding wars are popping up very frequently. As a buyer, how do you manage this process? 1. Breathe: Have you noticed how often you get that advice? Just breathe. That’s because when you get stressed out, you literally can’t breathe, and then your brain doesn’t work correctly. Take a minute and breathe. You’ve been thrown a curveball, but you can navigate this and procure the home of your family’s dreams. 2. Goals: Review your goals. When you got into this process, did you want to get the best deal in town? Or did you want to find the perfect home for you, your family, and your lifestyle? The fact that the home is being bid on by multiple buyers indicates that it probably is a good deal. Maybe even an insane deal. 3. Stay in/Get out: Once you find yourself in a bidding war, you can walk away or you can submit your highest and best offer. Maybe you offered $225,000 to begin with but decide to go up to $235,000 because your mortgage payment isn’t going to go up that much and you really want this house. A lot of buyers bail out because of bidding wars and miss out on home. Don’t let your pride prevent you from participating in a bidding war!

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Don't miss out on your dream home.

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Summary? Buying and selling real estate is stressful business – VERY stressful. Don’t let anyone, especially a Real Estate Agent looking for their next deal, convince you that it’s not! Someone, and we’re really not sure who, said: “Nothing great was ever accomplished without making sacrifices.”


If you’ve got further questions or would like our help on minimizing the impact of that stress, just give us a jingle! [phone].