Our spring real estate market in Myrtle Beach is here! That means that more and more buyers are heading to the area to look for a home to purchase. The snow has melted enough up northeast to allow the buyers to escape and head to Myrtle Beach to start the process of finding their new home in the area. With the increase in number of buyers, this also means an increase in number of offers being made on property in Myrtle Beach.
In more and more cases, these means that we are having multiple offer situations for our buyers. When I meet with a buyer for the first time I explain to them how our market is very strong at the moment and that if they see something while here in Myrtle Beach that there is a high possibility for the property they see to be in a multiple offer situation.
Today I am going to share with you some tips on how you can win in a multiple offer situation. As a Myrtle Beach real estate agent now for over 17 years, I’ve had a lot of experience dealing with these situations and have put together 5 tips that I think can help differentiate your offer from the rest when submitting and hopefully help you win in a bidding war.
The Price
Ok, so when it comes to multiple offers, the number one thing that the sellers are going to look at in most situations is the price. They are going to see who is giving the most amount of money for their property so that they can put the most amount of money in their pocket.
It is important that you put your best foot forward when doing this but not overpay for the property, especially if you are looking at doing financing. Many times, the selling agent will notify all parties with an offer on the property that the seller has called for a highest and best offer. When this happens, the seller is giving all potential buyers the ability to make one last change to their offer if they really want to win the residence. When this happens, sometimes a buyer pulls out, sometimes a buyer stays with their original offer, and sometimes a buyer will increase their amount, remove stipulations from their offer, or make other major changes to get their offer selected over the other ones.
The Closing Date
The second thing that you want to pay attention to in a multiple offer situation to give you the best opportunity to win is the date of closing. As I share a few weeks back, the closing date is a major component in an offer to buy and sell real estate.
If the seller of that property needs to move out and find a property to move to, they may want a longer time in order to find the property they need. If they own it and it is vacant and they want to get it sold quickly to reduce their expenses. Sellers who own vacant homes in Myrtle Beach have large expenses going out each month for utilities, taxes, and HOA dues. The quicker they can close and reduce their expenses, is normally better for a seller.
What I like to do from time to time is to find out that information ahead of time from the selling agent so that when I’m putting together my offer and presenting it we are setting a date that’s going to work best for both parties. I’ve even asked the selling agent before to find out from the seller what date would work best for them in situations where my buyer is flexible with closing on any date.
The Contingencies
The third thing that you want to pay attention to in a multiple offer situation is the contingencies that you add to your offer. Are you writing this offer contingent upon selling another home? Is it contingent upon a home inspection? Is it something where you are trying to get the seller to give you closing costs? Or you are trying to have them fix a bunch of things in the house?
If those things are happening, they are all contingencies that make more work for the seller. The less of those you have in your offer, the better likelihood you are to be picked over some of the other offers they receive. If the sellers have three offers on their Myrtle Beach home and two have contingencies for things to be repaired and inspections to be done while the other offer is willing to purchase the property AS IS, the AS IS offer will be much more appealing to the seller since it involves less work on the home, less questions whether the buyers will actually purchase. If all other parts of the contract are similar, 9 out of 10 times the seller will take this offer over the others.
The Qualifications To Buy
The fourth thing that you want to pay attention to is your money side of things. If you are paying cash for this property, get you a proof of funds letter ahead of time from your bank and submit it with your offer. If you are doing financing, you can still buy the property and win it when you are doing financing if you have a pre-approval ahead of time. I’ll share with you guys at the end how I recently won a multiple offer situation where we had financing over a cash offer.
It is extremely important to include this documentation when submitting your offer to the selling agent. This is the proof showing that you are actually qualified to make the purchase and have actually started the process which makes your offer MUCH more appealing over someone else who the seller does not even know if they can get the money to make the purchase.
The Earnest Money
So the fifth tip I want to talk about today is earnest money. Earnest money is the down money you are putting down with your offer to show that you have interest in this property. While someone else might put only $500 or $1,000 down, if you were to put maybe $2,000, $3,000, $5,000 down you are going to make your offer look more appealing over your competition.
Now you do run a risk of losing that money if you were to walk away from the deal, but if everything goes as planned, and you end up closing on the property, it’s going to help set you apart from someone else. The sellers will look at a deal with more money down as a major appeal over one with less. Just know if for some reason the deal goes south, you do run a risk of losing this money.
How I Win Multiple Offers
So I hope you found a lot of value in these five tips today. And as I mentioned a few minutes ago I wanted to share with you a story recently where I had a multiple offer situation and my buyers were able to win. We were in a multiple offer situation, the agent told us there were other offers on the table make sure you bring your highest and best offer in.
So I spoke with my buyers and we did what these 5 tips said. We got a pre-approval ahead of time, we got a strong earnest money that was higher than what normally people would give, we allowed the sellers to pick the date we are going to close, and we wrote it with basically no contingencies in our offer.
Our offer was picked over other ones and the agent shared with me that the items I suggested to my buyers to make as appealing as possible were the reasons we got our offer picked. Were we probably the highest number one? Maybe not. But, having those four other items in place for us was able to help us win over the others. I know for a fact, one of those other offers even was a cash offer. But our financing one was taken over it because these four other factors made is look like a better option to the sellers. We will actually be closing on this property here in the next few weeks.
Take these five tips to heart, put them into practice and you will be able to win in a multiple offer situation. If you are looking to buy a home in Myrtle Beach and want someone to help you to get the home in a bidding war, feel free to contact me here or call me directly at 843-222-9402. I’d love the opportunity to work with you in buying your next home in Myrtle Beach.
