What's Going On With Multiple Offers?

"Multiple Offers" was the phrase of the year in both 2020 and 2021! It seemed like we could not sell or buy a house without competing to get our offer on the table. It ruined chances for buyers that wanted inspections, non-cash buyers, and buyers who wanted to take their time deciding. So, what are multiple-offer situations looking like now that we're heading out of the feeding frenzy? We always say that good houses at good prices sell in any market. We are starting to see our typical “slower” fall market, but we are still seeing multiple offers. Right now, our inventory is about to drop below the 8,513 homes listed last year at this time, which was a very low inventory. This means that we still have a healthy buyer pool. A couple of changes to note: We’ve had 1591 price reductions in the last 7 days, which means even if there are multiple offers, buyers may only be competing with 1-3 other buyers, buyers are having inspections, and the prices are not going way over list price. This means that sellers need to price the home appropriately for condition, not just for what their neighbor sold for in March. If they price appropriately, they can still push the final sale price over the list price through multiple offers. We are seeing more and more multiple offer situations fall apart, which means once the sellers have accept one of the offers, it falls through. This can be due to buyer’s remorse, inspection issues, or unforeseen personal circumstances for the buyers. The message here is: If you are the buyer and you love the house but didn’t win the first round, ensure your agent is staying in touch with the listing agent to make sure you are the first one they call before putting it back on the market.