My house went up on mls yesterday...

[xokell2]

My house went on the market yesterday afternoon. We had some showings yesterday and have some scheduled for today. My realtor sounds optimistic that we should get an offer before this weekend based on her feedback from yesterday. Our realtor is amazing and I know she will steer us in the best direction but I’m looking for some anecdotal advice.

My husband Is thinking we should let the house sit on the market until this weekend and then consider any offers to possibly have a larger audience than what’s limited to weekday evenings. My gut is telling me we should take whatever comes first and is a reasonable offer as we already have a closing date set on our new home later this month. The market by me has definitely cooled into the fall but luckily there isn’t much competition in our area so homes in our price range sell relatively quickly. Thoughts?

[Deleted]

I'm with your husband. Waiting until the weekend sounds like it could potentially put you in a situation with multiple offers, which is never a bad thing. If you are getting this much interest already, you are likely priced well, so I might be inclined to wait through the weekend and then review any and all offers. Also, if your agent communicates with other agents what you are doing, it will encourage any potential buyers to make their best offer. Good luck to you!

[NewGirlNic]

I would wait as well. If someone is seriously interested, waiting a few days isn't going to deter them.

[icedcoffee]

I feel like this is one of those things that depends on a few things: how strong is the offer that comes in? how late in the week they final submit it? any other tidbits shared with the realtor?

Honestly, if I trusted my realtor I'd probably let them make this decision for me.

[georgeharrison]

We had this same scenario. Our listing went live on a Wednesday morning. We had several showings that day. We had a full price offer the next morning. We showed several more times on Thursday. By Thursday night, we had 6 good offers. We went with an offer of 4% over asking, no contingencies, and a fast closing. We had an open house planned for the weekend and we cancelled it and accepted that offer.

There were two main reasons we cancelled. 1) The good offer expired before the open house and with how the market was running, our realtor told us that it was possible that they had a back-up and would move on. 2) We had 2 cats and 2 dogs and trying to keep them out of the house and the house super clean sucked...even for the two days. We would sit at a restaurant with our animals in the car and have our son do his homework at the table while we waited for one showing after another. It was such a huge hassle.

[noodleoo]

I'd probably wait and see what offers you get and make a decision on Friday. If you get a full price offer, I might be inclined to take it, but it would depend what kind of offers you get before the weekend and how many.

[imojoebunny]

Depends on what the offers are. If you get a really good offer, I would not mess around with it, and potentially scare off the buyer. I wouldn't worry about it, until you have an offer in hand.

On the first day, we got one for $15K over ask, and two others, at ask. We took the $15K over because we didn't think it would appraise for anymore than that (was already listed higher than any of the recent comps), and then we would either have to get the seller to come up with cash for the difference, or lower the price to the appraisal, which had happened to some friends of ours a couple of months before, and was a pain. If you get multiple offers, you can always counter with highest and best, due by Saturday night or Sunday, and then pick the best.

[pantsparty]

I don't see any harm in waiting - unless you get an offer at ask that expires in a few days. In which case I would probably go with that offer.

[MDmomof2]

We sold in a fairly robust market with a similar situation. We went on the market Thursday and had a lot of showings the first few days and through the weekend. We had an Open House on Sunday. On Friday our realtor recommended an offer deadline of Monday at 5 pm. We got one offer over the weekend and we just sat on it, waiting to see what came in on Monday. By Monday we had 6 offers and the first one we got was the worst of them! We settled at $8,000 over asking with the flexibility we needed in a closing date. If you trust your realtor, ask what s/he thinks. It worked for us to continue to show over the weekend and hold the Open House. I think we would have missed our buyers if we didn't. The offer deadline helped us get all the serious offers in at once and we could consider our options.

[pooh8402]

wait until the weekend for sure!

[lovelyshoes]

You don’t have to respond to the offer right away and I’d wait and see if there are any contingencies and pick the one that works best for you, not necessarily the highest offer.

[puppylove64]

I would at least wait until Monday. The first people that saw our house made an offer. It was reasonable and we would have accepted but we waited a few days to give other people a chance. We ended up in a bidding war.

[dancingirl21]

I think it depends on the potential offers that come in before the weekend. We were in a similar situation. Listed on a Thursday afternoon, had 14 showings on Friday and 12 lined up for Saturday. We received an all cash offer Friday night that was $20k off our asking price. Our realtor basically laughed at them and said “try again” based on our market time. By the end of Friday night, we were $7k apart and we let them know we would get back to them in the morning. We countered in the morning and ended up being $3k off our asking price, and signed the contract with them. We still let the showings happen on Saturday just in case but no one else offered all cash so we stuck with the original offer.

So, see what happens. If it doesn’t seem like a good enough offer now, I’d be inclined to have your realtor reach out to interested parties and have them present their best and final by Sunday, indicating that there are multiple parties interested. Good luck!

[sookie]

We listed our house on a Friday night, had 5 showings Saturday, and an offer by lunch halfway thru the showings. We continued on with the showings for the rest of the day and then accepted the offer because it was a really great offer (above asking, quick closing which we needed because we were one months out from closing on a different house, no contingencies).

[fivechickens]

I am with your husband.

My aunt’s realtor had an open house on a Friday and some scheduled showings that week. The realtor wasn’t taking any offers until the following Monday. It sold for $15k over asking.

[sparkythelawyer]

Yeah, my agent said all that too. Two weeks later.....

[YahYahs]

Oct 3, 2018 13:57:48 GMT -5 sparkythelawyer said:

Yeah, my agent said all that too. Two weeks later.....

Same...except 46 days later....
(Two people are supposedly working on offers now, but I'll believe it when I have them in hand. They're both contingent on their own sales too, boo.)

[sparkythelawyer]

Oct 3, 2018 14:16:09 GMT -5 YahYahs said:

Oct 3, 2018 13:57:48 GMT -5 sparkythelawyer said:

Yeah, my agent said all that too. Two weeks later.....

Same...except 46 days later....
(Two people are supposedly working on offers now, but I'll believe it when I have them in hand. They're both continent on their own sales too, boo.)

Hope things move for you soon!

[YahYahs]

Oct 3, 2018 14:39:50 GMT -5 sparkythelawyer said:

Oct 3, 2018 14:16:09 GMT -5 YahYahs said:

Same...except 46 days later....
(Two people are supposedly working on offers now, but I'll believe it when I have them in hand. They're both continent on their own sales too, boo.)

Hope things move for you soon!

Thanks - you, too!
We dropped the price and we have painters in here right now. The only critique people have is that the walls show wear (for a 2-yr-old house with new construction as the competition), so hopefully this takes care of it. We just listed at a TERRIBLY slow time, but it's starting to pick up now. 

[sparkythelawyer]

Oct 3, 2018 14:43:48 GMT -5 YahYahs said:

Oct 3, 2018 14:39:50 GMT -5 sparkythelawyer said:

Hope things move for you soon!

Thanks - you, too!
We dropped the price and we have painters in here right now. The only critique people have is that the walls show wear (for a 2-yr-old house with new construction as the competition), so hopefully this takes care of it. We just listed at a TERRIBLY slow time, but it's starting to pick up now. 

We're a 2 bedroom in a land of 3s.  Even though we have more square footage....grumble.  Someone will buy it eventually :-)

[xokell2]

Oct 3, 2018 13:57:48 GMT -5 sparkythelawyer said:

Yeah, my agent said all that too. Two weeks later.....

Oh no! What happened?

We had two offers today, one was super low but the spouse is out of town and they will resubmit when the other is able to see it. One was only 5k lower than asking but a good close. All I’m hoping for is a full price offer and a decent close

[cabbagecabbage]

The Realtor will almost always tell you take a first offer because their commission isn’t going to differ much at all depending on the price but I’ve read that when realtors sell, their houses are typically on the market longer and sell slightly above market prices. So if you have offers plural coming in or a lots of traffic, I’d absolutely wait. I’d also go back requesting highest and best offers if you’re lucky and get more than one. Good luck!

[xokell2]

One of the initial offers came back at 100.00 over asking, no warranty, secure financing and a perfect close date. Their agent called ours and asked what do we have to offer to make this happen before the weekend? I’m in a townhouse, I don’t think we can go too high on the price without it risking being below appraisal. What else could we really ask for?

[themoneytree]

Oct 3, 2018 18:34:06 GMT -5 cabbagecabbage said:

The Realtor will almost always tell you take a first offer because their commission isn’t going to differ much at all depending on the price but I’ve read that when realtors sell, their houses are typically on the market longer and sell slightly above market prices. So if you have offers plural coming in or a lots of traffic, I’d absolutely wait. I’d also go back requesting highest and best offers if you’re lucky and get more than one. Good luck!

I don’t agree with this - they often recommend taking first offers because they are very often the highest offer a seller is going to get. Obviously there are lots of exceptions to this, but so often sellers reject the first offer and end up selling for significantly less than that first offer they turned down. I see it all the time.

That said I don’t think there is any harm at all in saying that (assuming it’s well priced with lots of interest) offers will be reviewed after the weekend unless you get an extremely strong offer first.

[lilac05]

This is really market dependent. Talk to your agent and see what she recommends.

Around here, the market has cooled and there’s a lot of inventory. It’s super rare for a bidding war to happen and things rarely go above list price (unless intentionally underpriced to get more showings). In this market, it would be advised to stop booking showings after the first offer is received. The agent would let the scheduled showings know that there’s already an offer on the table. Some people would cancel the showing right away to avoid a multiple offer scenario. Then, when all showings are done, compare the offers (if there’s more than one).

Obviously, this is very different than other markets...so check with your agent to see what’s best for your area. On ML, it seems like “everyone” has multiple offers, above asking, within two days...but in reality, that’s not always how it goes. You pay an agent to know what’s best in your area.

[cabbagecabbage]

Oct 4, 2018 8:45:32 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

This is really market dependent. Talk to your agent and see what she recommends.

Around here, the market has cooled and there’s a lot of inventory. It’s super rare for a bidding war to happen and things rarely go above list price (unless intentionally underpriced to get more showings). In this market, it would be advised to stop booking showings after the first offer is received. The agent would let the scheduled showings know that there’s already an offer on the table. Some people would cancel the showing right away to avoid a multiple offer scenario. Then, when all showings are done, compare the offers (if there’s more than one).

Obviously, this is very different than other markets...so check with your agent to see what’s best for your area. On ML, it seems like “everyone” has multiple offers, above asking, within two days...but in reality, that’s not always how it goes. You pay an agent to know what’s best in your area.

Truly not snarky but why would you inform scheduled showings there’s an offer and get those showings canceled? To me that seems like cutting off potential buyers before they even see the place. My inclination is to let everyone want the place. Sure bidding wars are uncommon but why discourage them. I’m not understanding the logic of it. I’m not questioning that it may be true in your market, i just don’t understand why. Do you know the reason?

[lilac05]

Oct 4, 2018 8:55:31 GMT -5 cabbagecabbage said:

Oct 4, 2018 8:45:32 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

This is really market dependent. Talk to your agent and see what she recommends.

Truly not snarky but why would you inform scheduled showings there’s an offer and get those showings canceled? To me that seems like cutting off potential buyers before they even see the place. My inclination is to let everyone want the place. Sure bidding wars are uncommon but why discourage them. I’m not understanding the logic of it. I’m not questioning that it may be true in your market, i just don’t understand why. Do you know the reason?

I agree that it doesn’t make sense.  I would say that our market is extremely polite, for lack of a better word.  Even when the market is hotter, bidding wars are rare.  For our area, it’s “common courtesy” to inform potential showings that there is already an offer on the table.  Then buyers don’t want to “steal” it from someone else. The buyers who made the offer often don’t like that you’re sitting around waiting for something better instead of taking what you’ve got (can be seen as greedy).  This way definitely has pros and cons.  As a seller, it feels like more cons, but as a buyer, it means you don’t end up losing multiple houses after making an offer, and you know that houses usually sells for right around their listing price.  If you make a really good offer, it’s very likely going to be accepted.

Our home was a foreclosure but paperwork was done, the house was ready for a quick close, & it was in move-in condition aside from needing appliances.  Essentially, it was no different than any other home on the market.  They underpriced it by about 25% in hopes of a multiple offer/bidding war situation like would happen in most other markets.  (It was not a local bank.)  That failed them majorly, but worked to our advantage!  We got a fantastic deal on the house because we knew the culture of this market and were confident people weren’t going to offer much over asking, even if the market supported a much higher price.  They had 5 offers, but still sold at almost 20% under market value.  (Closing time and processes were the same as any non-foreclosure home we have purchased.)

“Midwest Nice” extends to some real estate markets, too!  For better or for worse.

[vanillacourage]

Oct 3, 2018 20:42:40 GMT -5 xokell2 said:

One of the initial offers came back at 100.00 over asking, no warranty, secure financing and a perfect close date. Their agent called ours and asked what do we have to offer to make this happen before the weekend? I’m in a townhouse, I don’t think we can go too high on the price without it risking being below appraisal. What else could we really ask for?

How many more showings do you have already scheduled?  You could always call those people and say there’s an offer on the table and if they are interested they need to see/offer on the house by Friday evening. But, people who are super motivated to see/offer on your house would probably already have done so - they wouldn’t have let the fact that it was a weekday stop them from doing so. 

[sparkythelawyer]

Oct 3, 2018 18:25:01 GMT -5 xokell2 said:

Oct 3, 2018 13:57:48 GMT -5 sparkythelawyer said:

Yeah, my agent said all that too. Two weeks later.....

Oh no! What happened?

We had two offers today, one was super low but the spouse is out of town and they will resubmit when the other is able to see it. One was only 5k lower than asking but a good close. All I’m hoping for is a full price offer and a decent close

What happened is that sometimes realtors overpromise and underdeliver.  We have two showings today and an open house on Saturday so we'll see.

[egishere]

My parents house went live on a thur and they got a bidding war. By Monday they had settled with an all cash buyer and it went for 115k more than asking which was crazy. So in a hot market I say wait too. Good luck with the sale!!!