We've all heard stories this year of home owners who sold their listing within a day or even a few hours of putting their house on the market. Although it's very tempting for a home owner to accept the first strong offer that comes in, is this the right decision to make?
We would argue in many cases the right decision is to wait and allow more offers to come in before responding to the first buyer that writes an offer. The reason is competing offers are a seller's best friend. Sellers who negotiate with multiple buyers usually end up with a higher price and better terms than sellers who negotiate with just one. The hard part for some sellers is knowing how to attract competing offers in the first place. Here are four tips for making it happen.
How to attract multiple offers to your listing
#1: Use "coming soon" marketing to drive traffic to your listing. You'll get more buyers into your home when you jump-start your marketing with a coming soon campaign.
#2: Plan for a week of showings before negotiating with any buyers. Make sure all interested parties have an opportunity to view your home. Hold an open house and get as many buyers into your home as possible over a 7-day stretch of time.
#3: Select a price point that's likely to attract competing buyers. Usually it's better to slightly "under-price" than slightly "over-price" your listing. Once you have multiple buyers on the line you can use your leverage to get the terms you want and negotiate the price higher.
#4: "Over-communicate" with all interested buyers. For each offer you receive, let all interested parties know you have a new offer on the table. Make it clear to all buyers that they will need to compete in order to get their offer accepted.
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