By Carole Hawkins, [email protected]
After years of honing their skills in short sales, Realtors now face a different challenge — competing for a contract when other homebuyers are vying for it.
Pending home sales in the Jacksonville area rose by 30 percent year-over-year in March and the market continued that momentum in April, ticking up 24 percent from a year earlier, according to NEFAR.
Multiple offers are happening more and more, said Rory Dubin, president of the Women’s Council of Realtors Jacksonville Chapter.
“There are a lot of new agents who haven’t run into a multiple-offer situation before,” Dubin said.
WCR in May invited a panel of top listing agents to talk about what the sellers are looking for and how to get an offer accepted when more than one buyer wants the house.
After the first offer, how long do you wait for others to come in?
Just 24 hours. It’s not five days, or us saying, “Turn offers in by this date.” I want to get it over with and get this under contract.
–– Anita Hiles, Exit Real Estate Gallery
Should buyers’ agents use an escalatory addendum, in case other offers are made?
Absolutely, if your buyer wants the house and wants to be able to make a highest-and-best offer.
It means in a multiple-offer situation you’re going to, for example, put down $500 above the highest offer, not to exceed $200,000.
It’s the best way to play a highest-and-best game, and your odds of not getting picked are slim to none.
–– Hiles, Exit Real Estate Gallery
How much does a fully underwritten pre-approval, as compared to pre-qualification, help the offer?
It helps a lot. There are sellers out there who’ve had bad experiences. And pre-qualification means something, but it doesn’t mean everything.
Some lenders I’ve worked with use desktop underwriting and get an additional layer of approval that way.
But, I think it’s very critical.
–– Buzz Thomas, The Legends of Real Estate East Coast
Is cash still king?
No, no, no.
Sometimes there’s a little bit of arrogance that comes with the cash buyer. They feel that they can get a better deal because there are fewer contingencies.
I’m a negotiator. I can deal with contingencies. What I want is a ready, willing and able buyer.
If you come in saying, “I’m cash, and I can close in two weeks,” guess what? Closing in two weeks may not be a benefit to my seller who’s fine with closing in 60 days.
–– CC Underwood, Keller Williams
Jacksonville Realty
When you have multiple offers, do you give agents the courtesy of knowing? Do you notify agents whose buyers have shown interest?
We take it a step further. If there is a showing scheduled for that day, we call and say, “What level of readiness is your buyer at? Are they purchasing today or are they purchasing three months down the road, because we’ve had an offer come in.”
If the buyer is interested, they still might submit an offer as well.
–– Christina Welch of Keller Williams Jacksonville Realty
How can I detect when the listing agent says they have multiple offers if they really have multiple offers?
I have my agents write it in the contract. If there is a multiple offer and they do an escalatory clause to win the bid, we always get to see the offer.
We want evidence of the previous price because we’re going to go at least $1,000 over.
–– Underwood of Keller Williams
Jacksonville Realty
What incentive items other than price can a buyer use to get their offer accepted?
I think an additional binder is helpful.
The buyer puts down the usual 1 percent binder. But after the inspection, if they really want the house badly in this tight market, they put down another binder, maybe an additional $1,000.
By the way, one mistake agents are making is offering a first binder of $500 or $1,000. When that happens, you guys are getting a phone call from me saying, “This is not appropriate.” The standard is 1 percent of the purchase price, and it’s our job to educate our client on what is standard.
–– Hiles, Exit Real Estate Gallery