Lightning in a Bottle

When I put a hot listing* online…I have a process. Once that listing hits the multiple listing service, I’m usually going to know pretty quickly what I’m working with. It is not uncommon to get 8+ showings per day and a bunch of frantic buyer agent calls on that first weekend. There is an arc to how it goes, and I’ve even gone as far as writing out a manifesto** on my process so sellers can read through my thoughts, philosophy and what they should expect.

One of the key pillars of my listing leadership in that first weekend is: the sellers are in control of the timeline. It took a ton of work to get here and we want to give the house at least 4 days of market time before responding to any offers. We will not be bullied by an over zealous buyer/agent who wants a quick response on Saturday night. I’m not going to cancel 5 showings on Sunday plus an open house to appease and impatient party. If they like it on Saturday, then they should still like it on Monday. And if they don’t, then they weren’t the right buyer anyway. This has worked really well for hot listings in the past decade and has yielded many multiple offer situations for my clients.

All of that said…I’ve also learned to be flexible. A few weeks ago, my first cute listing of 2025 when live. The pix were amazing, the sellers did all of the right things to prep and the place was bound to get a lot of action. Day one, one showing. Day two, one showing. Yikes!! I really was expecting this one to get bombarded with showings and mobbed at the open house. It wasn’t exactly crickets, but pretty damn close.

Showing one gave me a call: “If we put a strong offer together, do you think we could get a response from the sellers tonight?”

Me: “I cannot speak for them, but I will get it in front of them promptly”.

Solid offer arrives: $16k over asking with good terms***. With only one other showing on the books…it was looking like a no-brainer. The sellers decided to wait to respond until showing two happened. Turns out that the second party really liked it too; they literally turned an offer around in less than an hour. $41k over asking with even better terms. What?!?

In this situation, I tell showing one that they need to improve their offer to compete, but I don’t give them any specific numbers. My intention is to get the best price/terms for the sellers AND be as fair as humanly possible to every buyer who makes the effort to submit an offer. Showing one responds with $31k over and improved terms. Still an amazing offer, but $10k short of the leader.

The sellers decide to accept the offer from showing two after only two days of market time. During all of the back and forth, there were not any other showings scheduled. I’ve never had one play out quite like this and, two weeks removed from closing, I’m still shocked that we didn’t get more showings.

Additionally, the listing timing was a little off from my usual plan. The house went live on the Wednesday before Spring Break. Usually, I would avoid listing that week, but it seemed silly to wait since everything was ready + looking good. If either of these offers failed to come together, we would have a clean slate and plenty of runway to go back on the week after with no major ramifications. That was another reason that I was okay with the shortened timeline.

Nineteen days later the sale was closed and the buyer did not ask for a single concession. The house was in good condition, and they had agreed to not ask for much, but we still expected something. It also appraised just fine which was also a concern that came and went with no issue. This is NOT a good template to rely on for any sale…for now I’ll call it lightning in a bottle and leave it at that.

*a hot listing is usually cute, in a good location and has been properly prepped and priced.

**give me a call or email and I’d be happy to share :-)

***other than price, the terms that can be played with are closing date, as-is purchase, appraisal gap fillers, contingency removals, etc.