How to Win Offers

What if I told you that the highest bidder is not always the one who walks away with the contract to purchase? This is especially true in the Jacksonville market, where most buyers rely on bank financing instead of having thousands of dollars in cash. But that's okay! There are plenty of other incentives we can use to get the seller to choose your offer.

When a client tells me they want a property, we craft an offer together. The first thing I do is figure out what the seller’s wants and needs are. Of course, the seller wants the highest price for their home, but the highest price doesn’t always mean netting the most money. A high sale price may be negated by a buyer who demands the seller make an expensive repair or replacement. For example, the back deck was in tough shape on one home. The seller’s agent likely told them that repairing it would be part of any negotiation. With my buyer's approval, who was handy by nature, our offer stated that the deck would not have to be repaired to close the sale. We ended up winning this offer, even though we were not the highest bidder, largely because of this. The key information I gained was that the seller was on a timeline to move, and scheduling a deck repair and re-inspection might delay closing. Additionally, coughing up money before the sale was not something they were interested in. By knowing the seller’s needs, I was able to craft a winning offer.

Why would you do this? As a buyer, you may be limited when offering your purchase price due to the bank not paying over the appraised value. If your offer exceeds the appraised value, you will likely have to make up the difference in cash. (This is market and offer dependent.) I would advise doing this only if you really want the property and are okay with paying over market value. Generally, I take pride in saving my clients money, so this rarely happens.

Often, a property will receive offers of very similar purchase prices due to it being relatively easy to guess the appraised value. Your offer can stand out by saving the seller money or time in other ways. Often the seller is buying or renting another property to move into, and the timing of closing is crucial to saving them money. If, as a buyer, you are flexible or can endure some inconvenience to get your dream home, picking a closing date that is favorable to the seller is a huge advantage.

As your agent and negotiator, I pride myself on finding little details that put us in the endzone when it comes to offers. On another home, I learned that the seller was very attached to his home security system, which may have transferred ownership with the home. My buyer was not particularly interested in the system, so we stated that we would not be asking for it. That property ended up with eight offers, and ours won after a four-way tie on price. I might add that as an active and established agent in this area, the other realtor mentioning, “this agent is easy to work with and gets things done in a timely manner,” might have put our offers over the edge on more than one occasion.

In summary, there are plenty of creative ways to make your offer more attractive!  Find out what motivates the seller, find out what advantages the buyer brings to the table, and craft an offer that is a win for both parties.