What does the offer say? Some of them have a clause that you must reply within...24 hours. 3 days. etc.

Exciting! (Do you have an agent? What does she/he say?)

Realtor just called to say that the first person upped their offer AND we have a third offer coming in. Exciting!

Offers should be in writing only! I would not respond to verbal offers.

Jane

You can say you want to wait thru the weekend. Then have your agent go back to all the other agents who submitted offers and ask for highest and best! This gives all the buyers one last opportunity to submit their best offer (price and terms. the highest offer is not always the best offer) You can choose the best offer from all offers submitted.

@jane the offers are all in writing and come with earnest money checks.

@linda I like that idea. We would be taking a risk that they might move on between now and then. I guess we'll have to decide if we want a safe bet or if we want to take a gamble!

Congratulations!

Linda is correct... wait through the weekend, and then tell all buyers to submit their "Highest and Best" w/in the next 24 hours or so. Do not reject even the lowball offers. Send them a request for Highest and Best also.

Makes you wonder if you priced the house a wee bit too low? Just be carefull with multiple offer ... this isn't 2004 anymore! Back then when we bought we would cancel our offer if we were told there were multiple offers. We weren't willing to play the game. Many agents were lying about more offers and getting buyers to bid against themselves.

My area is also having some listings with multiple offers due to lack of good inventory ... crazy time to overpay when the RE market is still unstable.

I don't think the house is priced too low. I think it's priced just right. There is exactly ONE recent comparable in our area, and it sold for $144,000. We listed at $144,900 and the offers are effectively all about $139,000. My husband expressed a concern that even if we got a much higher offer, the house wouldn't appraise that high, so their FHA financing would fall through. (All offers so far are contingent on FHA financing.) I have another question I'm going to post in a new thread. :)

Congratulations!

Can you post a link to your MLS listing? I want to see what you are doing right :)

"Back then when we bought we would cancel our offer if we were told there were multiple offers."

This is what I thought immediately when someone said something about highest and best offer. In our current buying situation, if they had come back asking for highest and best, we'd have withdrawn our offer and gone elsewhere. There were other good choices we'd seen and we didn't want to be involved in a bidding war at all.

However, from a seller's point of view, this is a good situation to be in (what the house will appraise for IS a concern. The house we are buying managed to appraise for what the final number was -- but just. No extra.)

The famous 3-bedroom townhouse that got 15 showings and 3 offers within 24 hours

Professional photos by SpaceCrafting (warning, music plays on load!)

Our first-choice offer does not have an expiration date, but the agent suggests we respond "by 12:30 today." He is acting as both the buyer and seller's agent so he has to keep us both at arm's length. And of course he has a strong interest in our selling to his buyer because his commission is larger.

We currently have 7 more showings on the schedule for today/tomorrow.

What do you guys think? Try to delay accepting this offer by 24 hours, or just accept it and be done with it?

Ugh. So you don't have your own agent on that offer? I wouldn't like that situation.

*Why* respond to one offer by lunchtime today?

Also, be sure your listing agent brings mortgage commitment letters or proof of funds letters for every one of these buyers.

Sounds like the representing both buyer and sellers is already in question on doing his best in representing both. Your best interest would be waiting until after tomorrow to respond. The buyers best interest would be for a quick response.

Not sure I'd like that situation too much with a push like that especially since the agent knows there are more showings.

Yeah, why only respond to the one offer and not all three? Please tell us the agent's rationale with this?
Also, Why is it that sellers opt to walk away when knowing that there are multiple offers? Just submit your highest and best and be done with it. Your highest and best does not have to be any different than it would have been if there were no other offers. At least this way, you still have a fighting chance on getting the property.

ncreguy means why do buyers walk away, right?

This has been percolating in my brain, & it finally occurs to me to ask,
why?

Why so many showings, why so many offers, why such a flurry?

Usually, when I see Realtors & buyers swarming like this, it's because the price is a steal.

"Yeah, why only respond to the one offer and not all three?"

You cannot accept all three, so you can only really respond one at a time (unless you reject all and ask for BAFO).

I will not engage in bidding n a place. Period.

I will not play at 'BAFO.'
I already gave my best offer.

Its probably too late to respond to this but I will anyway for future sellers. If this is the first weekend on the market, you have every right AND SHOULD wait thru the weekend for all showings. YOUR AGENT is not representing your best interest if he is putting pressure on you to answer an offer when he knows it is a hot listing and you have 7 scheduled showings. (he is showing his true colors with the fact that the offer is his own buyer) When we have a "hot house" here, with multiple offers, we actually say in the first line of the listing, "Multiple offer situation, all offers submitted by 5pm on such and such a date". People that withdraw their offer because there are multiple bids are not the type of buyer you want on your home anyway and most likely the deal wouldnt have gone thru with them. You want someone who loves the house and will fight for it. Not someone who is so nonchalant about it that it doesnt matter to them if they dont get it.

NCRealEstateGuy (Mike) is correct, a buyer who wants the house will make their best offer regardless if there are multiple offers. They have absolutely nothing to lose by doing that, they do lose the house if they withdraw.

Brickeye,the majority of buyers DO NOT submit their best offer the first time around. They submit an offer to "feel out the seller". If i remember correctly, you buy investment properties, this is a different type of buyer entirely. Real estate is emotional for most buyers, it is not for investors.

minneapolisite, please keep us updated as to how things turned out.

"If i remember correctly, you buy investment properties, this is a different type of buyer entirely. Real estate is emotional for most buyers, it is not for investors. "

I also have a house to live in.

We countered on the best offer and the buyer accepted our counter offer, pending an FHA appraisal.

The buyer indicated that she was flexible on the closing date, so we were able to basically choose our own closing date. That will save us $3000 in living expenses. And because she used our listing agent as her buyer's agent, we will save $2000 on commissions.

I double-checked the recently sold homes in our area and I am pretty confident we sold it at fair market value. I have been second guessing myself a little bit when I get emotional over it, but I keep going back to the comps (similar houses selling for $128,000 - $144,000) and feel like we did okay selling at $144,000 minus $4,000 in closing costs.

Congratulations on the quick sale!

What was your eventual rationale for not countering ALL of the offers, and only the one?

ncrealestateguy, I didn't counter all of the offers because if everyone accepted my counter, I only have 1 house to sell, and I would be in breach of 2 out of 3 contracts. I'm honestly surprised someone with "realestateguy" in his user name is asking this question. :/

"What was your eventual rationale for not countering ALL of the offers..."

How do you propose to do this?

A counter becomes a valid contract when it is signed.

You are going to sell the sample house multiple times?

Each of those counters has the possibility to generate a valid contract.

The first one accepted and signed is likely to be held valid when the court squabbling settles down.

I'm sure NC meant requesting their best and final offer (like he suggested earlier), not countering with an actual number.