When is your best offer?

by Shawn Lackie

If I have heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times in the crazy world of Real Estate. “Your first offer is usually your best offer.” That’s not always true, but as a rule, I would say it is at least 80% of the time usually because the buyer is all jazzed and ready to go.

Obviously, the current economic climate and buy/sell situation vary. Like the pandemic, for example, when you barely had a chance to look at your first offer, and when you did, it was insanely over what you were asking. Those situations somewhat skew the reality. In a balanced market, that first offer generally IS the best one you will see. The longer the property sits on the market, the less likely you are to see a better offer.

Case in point. In 2021, I had a listing in Oakwood for a modest bungalow on a half-acre lot; they had lived in it for 10 years. They figured it was time to move. I helped them buy the home in 2011 for a very modest price. In fact, the home they sold to move to this one sold for a little more than they paid here, so it was, in many ways, a lateral move to a nicer, bigger home.

Here’s where the fun began. We listed at 729 and set an offer date seven days later. Offer day came, and we had seven offers. All were reasonable, but one stood head and shoulders above the rest.

I have always found that in multi-offer scenarios, there's usually what I call one unicorn offer. By that, I mean it's way better than the others, both in price and terms. Such was the case here. This offer was outstanding. Almost 900K with no conditions and a relatively short close. Boom. I thought we had this locked down. But I was dead wrong. They informed me they wanted at least a million for the place. I was gobsmacked to say the least. So they declined that one and ALL the others, figuring they would have a better one down the road. Ummmm no.

This was just when things were starting to cool in the crazy market. Things literally dried up. The place sat dormant. Eventually they decided it was all my fault and didn’t renew. They tried with another agent a year later at 849K. Not a single bite. Then with another agent in 2022 for 579K! You read that right. 300K LESS than they turned down the year prior. It eventually sold for 565K.

Those are the times you really have to bite your tongue and not call back and ask, "How did that work for ya?" The old woulda, shoulda, coulda.

A home across from where I live was listed a few years back for over three years with five different brokerages and numerous price drops and increases. It was a real gong show but eventually sold, much to the delight of the agent and frustration to both seller and agent. These are but a couple of the many experiences that prove the point. There are hundreds of others.

Feel free to check out this story and more on my blog site at: https://slackie14.wixsite.com/buy-sell-and-more.