If you are thinking about buying a house in the next few months, chances are you will find yourself in a multiple offer situation. The Charlotte region is one of the hottest markets in the country right now with buyers outnumbering sellers. This puts extra stress on homebuyers as they have to figure out ways to stand out from the crowd. Here are a few tips for handling multiple offers.
As a seller, multiple offers are really easy. Just sit back and let offers pour in and pick the best of the lot. As a buyer, they can be nerve wracking exercises with plenty of disappointment. This is probably keeping many more risk averse people out of the housing market. For those people with high risk tolerance, they can still be challenging because it is hard to know how much to offer and what terms will entice a seller to pick your offer out of the crowd.
One of the best things you can do is to make an aggressive offer. This may seem like obvious, but you don’t know what the other offers are and if you really want the home, you need to be willing to pay for it. This can take the form of an offer over list price, or more earnest money to take the home off the market, or both if you deem it necessary.
Another way to stand out is to take most of all contingencies out of the contract. This can mean not asking the seller to make any repairs, being willing to pay the difference if the home does not appraise for the contract price, and taking off loan conditions to name a few. It also means not making your offer contingent on selling your home first.
Another way to stand out is to offer to let the seller stay in the home for nominal or no rent for a few months so they can find their next home. This can be really attractive for a seller who will turn right around and become a buyer.
Personalized letters that are thoughtfully crafted can sway a seller to accept your offer. If you have a good story why their home should become your home, you can sway a seller away from a potentially more attractive offer. There is no guarantee that this will work, but it is definitely worth a try.
If you are a buyer about to enter the market in the Lake Wylie area, call us at 803-831-8588 to talk over your options and what you can do to prepare to make an offer on a home. You can view current listings and create custom searches on our website here.
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