Your Offer: Accepted
Getting an offer accepted in the competitive Portland Real Estate Market is no small feat. There are a multitude of strategies that I’ve employed over the years with great success. Each season has its own subtleties, and it is important not to take a cookie cutter approach to every offer. Historically, my business is split about 50/50 between listings and purchases. I mention this because my most current listing side experience informs how I approach any offer that I write for a buyer. Here are my top couple of tools that I use to get your offer accepted:
1) Communicate early, not too often and professionally with the listing agent of the property of interest. If the house is a hot one, then the listing agent is likely inundated with calls and info requests. I want to get the needed information, but I don’t want to be annoying by calling every 10 hours and asking: “how many offers are in now?”. It is all about building a report and demonstrating to them that I am the agent that they want to work with. As a listing agent, I’ve been shocked over the years by how many buyer agents submit an offer without calling me to ask some basic questions about what the seller is looking for; it is not always just price.
2) Only write offers that have a chance. It is my personal belief that every buyer only has so many offers in them before they get really cynical and frustrated with the process. If you’ve missed out on 7+ offers, then your agent is not asking the right questions. Back to building a report with the listing agent…if the deadline is near and I’ve got a feeling that my clients potential offer price is tens of thousands under where they need to be to win…the listing agent will often let me off the hook. “My guys are at $650k” “We’ve already got 3 that are well north of that” “Thanks for the insight and good luck with your sale!” I’ll take this info back to my buyers and give them the choice to write a 5th place offer or go enjoy the rest of their weekend; they usually take the latter.
3) Asking the right questions. By pinpointing exactly what the seller wants, we can craft an offer to perfectly suit their needs and beat the competition even with a lower downpayment + other shortcomings. Contrary to popular belief, the seller can authorize the listing agent can share anything the with the buyer’s agent. Some are tight lipped and others will tell everything if you ask the right questions at the appropriate time. By interpreting the code that I’m given, I can often get everything we need to win if my clients are on board to compete.
This house had three very similar offers. After the sale closed, the listing agent shared with me that my client won because I asked the right questions and did the best job presenting my offer.
4) Research. Comparable sales, permit history, updates + remodeling timing, seller property disclosures statement, tax records, etc. There is a tremendous amount of information out there for any given property. We want to do as much research on the front end before putting pen to paper on an offer. Sometimes we find something that is disqualifying that was not obvious on the surface. If you are going to go strong on some “as-is” language, you gotta make sure to have your bases covered. Further, I can demonstrate to the listing side that we did the homework that others did not.
5) Open house visits. Certainly, you should go to the open house for a second look. Acknowledge to the host (usually, but not always, the listing agent) that you are working with me and considering or have already submitted an offer. Just be your kind self and gush about the house. DO NOT inquire about how your offer stands against the others or any other strategy talk. DO NOT bring your parents. If you think your question might be dumb…don’t ask it. As a listing agent, I’m always paying attention to the buyers at my open house events. If they show up with their out-of-state parents, that are clearly decision makers in the situation, and ask a bunch of concerning questions…this info will be relayed back to the sellers and could be a determining factor in their decision.
6) Local lenders. If you wanna win…you gotta go with a local lender. I’ll leave it at that.
Writing an offer in a competitive situation can be quite intimidating. Everyone who sticks with it gets a great house. They often look back on the ones they missed out on and are actually pleased that it all worked out the way that it did. Trust me to be your guide and I’ll get you to the finish line. We can do this!!