Back HomeHow to Generate Multiple Offers When Selling Your House.
June 29th, 2017 by keithandkinsey
Our last 10 listings have received a combined total of 47 offers! Not every home is getting multiple offers though. What can you as a seller do to spark this competition on your home?
Price your home properly – Have a real estate agent do a comparative market analysis for you, and price it within 2% of what the comparable sales data shows it should be worth. In the current market, often sellers come out ahead by underpricing a home slightly with a strategy of trying to generate multiple offers. Many people markup their house 10% just to see if they can get it, but those houses tend to sit on the market a longer, and they often end up selling for less than if they had been priced accurately to begin with. In the current market buyers start wondering what’s wrong with a house and why nobody else wants it if a home is on the market for 3 weeks or more. As a result, overpricing the home can actually be a huge mistake and cause a lower sale price than underpricing a home.
Marketing – Marketing strategy is a key factor in generating multiple offers and competition among buyers for your home. Most home buyers are looking online before going to see a home, so your home must look great in its online photos. Make sure you use a Realtor who will hire a professional photographer and get your home posted on hundreds of real estate websites as well as all over social media. Additionally, planning specific time frames when you will start showings, have an open house, and review offers can be a huge part of the marketing strategy. We’ve found that recently allowing a day or two of showings prior to an open house and then responding to offers a day after the open house works well. This is a short enough time frame to create a lot of activity in a short period, putting the sense of urgency in a buyer. However, it’s also a sufficient time frame to allow people and agents to coordinate schedules and get in for a showing.
Stage your home – Get rid of all the clutter. De-personalize by taking down all the family photos. Paint those wild colors neutral. Make your closets, shelving, and cabinets appear organized (even if that means getting rid of 2/3 of the stuff in them). Remove items that make the home look more dated (like your grandma’s table cloth or those 1980’s curtains). Put some flowers on the table or a nice place settings to make your home looking inviting. It’s amazing the difference in a buyer’s reaction when a home is prepared nicely versus looking like your college bachelor pad. I once had a buyer willing to pay $15,000 more for a condo that was staged nicely vs an identical unit that was kind of messy (though in equal condition).
By using these strategies, we’ve successfully sold every home we’ve listed in the first 6 months of 2017, and we have received multiple offers on 7 out of the last 10 listings. Admittedly, some locations and price ranges prove to be more challenging, and that can shift our strategy a bit. Having a great agent on your side to advise you, who is up to speed on a rapidly changing market is well worth it. I’ve seen several sellers who’ve attempted for sale by owner or flat fee MLS that lost out on tens of thousands of dollars by not understanding how to price, advertise, or respond to offers in the current market. If you want to get the most out of your home let us know how we can help!
