If I had placed an offer on your house, it would have had a deadline between 24 - 48 hours for a counter/acceptance, after which the offer expires. Make sure your offer(s) don't have deadlines.

Don't forget the old saying ... a bird in the hand ...

Your agent needs to be calling the other agents with "maybe" offers to let them know you have one, and that their clients should submit offers by Wednesday if they want to be considered. Your agent needs to be selling your house, instead of waiting for your house to sell.

"Your agent needs to be calling the other agents with "maybe" offers to let them know you have one, and that their clients should submit offers by Wednesday if they want to be considered. Your agent needs to be selling your house, instead of waiting for your house to sell."

Absolutely...

If I were a buyer with a full price offer, and my realtor comes back to me and says the seller wants to see if other offers come in, I would say "fine, rescind my offer and I'll go elsewhere."

You don't tell the buyer that. As soon as you receive the offer, you get on the phone ASAP and contact those other agents that showed true interest, and tell them to submit an offer that night or the first offer will be responded to.

The realtor told the person that submitted the initial offer that we needed a few days to see what rolled in from the weekend open house. And she's been on the phone with the buyers' agents that showed interest telling them that we have an offer and they need to get off the fence. I do believe she's working it.

I'm just the one that is concerned that if we make a decision by Wed (tomorrow) that we haven't been on the market yet to see what other offers might roll in.

PS For the record, I don't think the buyers that submitted the offer will walk away. They wrote us a letter with their offer saying that they've been trying for a year to get into our neighborhood. Still, no point in stringing them along...

I would not hold off through next weekend. That is a long time and really insulting to buyers with a full price offer. By Wednesday anyone who has seen your house has had enough time to write an offer, if they haven't then they aren't interested.

When we were selling. We got an offer on Sunday. Our realtor knew there were 2 other offers that might come through from the weekend. Called both realtors and we had one of the 2 by Monday. The 2nd possible didn't bother, because they knew their offer was too contingent (needed to sell their house).

If I put my house on the market and had a full price offer in a matter of days, I'd be estatic! I would not leave them hanging at all. Respond within 48 hours.

Agree, full price offer. I would accept.

In some regions of the country, full price is considered a "starting" offer with many homes selling for full price + several more thousand. The sellers set the price in hopes of starting a bidding war that will get them more than if they set the price for the amount they want.

Jewel, to your point we did go with the strategy of setting a slightly lower price to attract some attention and get multiple offers. But it was also a price that we were willing to accept if that's what we got.

In general, I feel that the market is what the market is and we'll know the true value of our home shortly. That's part of the reason why I'm somewhat reluctant to make a call by tomorrow. But my take is that the general consensus here is not to wait. I suppose we can always take back-up offers if something happens with offer #1.

I agree with "bird in the hand." If those buyers walk and you don't get another offer (or another offer that high), you will be kicking yourself. I don't know about where you are, but here in NJ, the asking price is usually somewhat higher than expectation in order for there to be some room for negotiation. So, getting a full price offer generally exceeds expectations.

But, I know there are people who, if they get a full-price offer right off the bat, start wondering if they priced the house too low. I say it's a gamble to pass up this offer. I mean, you asked what you wanted/expected in the first place, right? So, it's a win-win situation.

Generally speaking, September through March is a slower time for selling homes. It may not be the best time to try a multiple offer strategy, and telling already frustrated buyers that you are waiting to see if more offers come in is, IMO, not the best way to handle the situation. The realtor should have told them she has let you know about the offer but will not be able to meet with you to fully review it and sign anything for a couple of days and then been on the phone immediately to let the others know it is time to make an offer or forget it.

I'd be surprised if that offer doesn't have a response deadline. I would also be surprised if you got another offer that was better. Your realtor has told folks she's offer shopping. Anyone who hasn't made an offer is likely to read from that that the current offer is less than asking, if not a low ball offer.

I'd work the current offer with a counter to shorten the inspection period and address any other concerns you might have (closing date, selling costs, etc.) but full price is no reason to stand around tapping your toes while a motivated but frustrated buyer decides they don't want to be the bait for a bidding war. They offered you full price and did so quickly. The last thing they should have heard was we're shopping for more offers. I'd have likely walked, Even with a stated expiration in the offer, they can rescind at any time prior to your acceptance.

It seems pretty standard practice for a house to go on the market and have open houses that weekend. And it also seems to be pretty standard practice to wait until Monday (Tuesday in this case due to the holiday) for the offers to come in and evaluate them. Deciding that you want to wait another week for more showings and another round of open houses makes you seem greedy.

I'd work with that offer. The inspection/lawyer/bank hurdles take time to clear and there's no reason you should pull your house off the market during that time. If another interested party puts in an offer, you do not yet have a contract and can consider it but if there is no other bid, you have a contract in the making already in motion.

Not so. You have a contract as far as the the buyer is concerned if inspection and financing are ok. So, you can't take a better offer as long as the original buyer fulfills his/her obligation.

If you're in a hot market, I'd assume that the serious buyers all got in during that first week to look. I doubt there are many dawdlers.

Don't get greedy, realize you're fortunate to get full price so quickly unlike those of us in the hinterlands, who wouldn't consider 10 showings in a week "moderate" interest.

Perhaps don't make the listing "pending" until you're past the inspection contingency, and continue to show the house. But I wouldn't string out these buyers. Not cool in my book.

It's not a contract unless all the terms are acceptable and papers have been signed. And here, it's may not be a contract even then -- it may be an option period.

A contract to buy can be recinded at anytime before it is signed by both parties. Waiting to see if you get something better would be an insult to me. I would tell you to see what you can get and I will come back with another offer in a week or so. And it sure wouldn't be full price!

All very helpful responses! We're going to meet with our realtor this afternoon and counter with a shorter inspection period (10 days).

Good Luck with your sale. Hope it goes smoothly.

Once both parties sign the offer, it is a contract, no matter if there are contingencies or not. Seems to be some confusion about this. Just because there is an option period does not mean there is no contract. You can not have two primary contracts at the same time. If you take a back up contract, it is in a secondary position.

You're absolutely right, of course, NCREG - I mis-spoke. In our case, we had a signed contract with contingencies and continued to show until all contingencies were cleared. Had we received a back-up offer that we found more attractive we could have given the original buyers an option to remove their contingencies or taken the back up offer.

Maybe it's just another regional difference but 10 days for inspection still seems like a really long time to me and ties you up with other realtors perhaps being reluctant to show your house. Here the standard time asked/given is 5 days and it's often accomplished in 3 to keep the process moving.

"Had we received a back-up offer that we found more attractive we could have given the original buyers an option to remove their contingencies or taken the back up offer."

Huh? I don't think so. Once you accept an offer that contains contingencies, such as inspection, financing, selling the current house, the seller has to honor them as long as the time period that was agreed on has not been exceeded. You can't give "the buyers an option to remove their contingencies or tak[e] the backup offer."

Or are you saying that your buyers agreed to a contract in which you could declare the contract void if a better offer came along?

This post was edited by nosoccermom on Tue, Oct 14, 14 at 19:24

Around here, an offer where one of the contingencies is that the buyer has to sell their own house before they can close on the seller's house usually contains a 24 hour "make good/kick out" clause. If the seller gets a more attractive offer, the first buyer is given 24 hours to remove the "sell our house first" contingency. If they don't/can't, the seller can contract with buyer #2 and buyer #1 loses the house.

But, no, contracts with the usual contingencies (inspection, financing, appraisal) don't generally also contain the 24 hour kick out clause.

Yes, we had a kick out clause, not on the sale of their house, but the closing. Our buyer's house was already under contract when they offered on ours. We accepted showings up until the day they closed even though we had an excellent offer because you just never know.

OK, so the magic word that was missing in this discussion is "kick out clause."
Thanks for clarifying. However, got to say that as a buyer in a competitive area I wouldn't agree to a kick out clause, especially something like the closing of the buyer's house. Sounds like that would depend on the buyer's buyer, too.

Once both parties sign the offer, it is a contract, no matter if there are contingencies or not. Seems to be some confusion about this. Just because there is an option period does not mean there is no contract. You can not have two primary contracts at the same time. If you take a back up contract, it is in a secondary position.

NCREG, unfortunately, not true everywhere. In my area, its "just an offer". Its not binding. It is a template to the contract. Offers can still be accepted right up until the "contract" is signed which can take a month or more. (sad but true in my area!)

Linda... and you guys also do not declare a closing date until midway through the deal too, if I understand what a lot of my NE relocators tell me. It is difficult to wrap my head around the way you all perform RE up there.
You are right... I forgot that you guys have to get two attorneys involved once you get the template put together.
I usually remind myself never to use the words, "never", "always", or anything absolute when it comes to RE in these United States.

I agree with Linda, that real estate laws differ from state to state, so it's hard to give advice about what is "legal" unless you know the rules of the state the poster is living in.