What with ongoing slow and slower sales in the real estate market, it might seem like a strange time to be talking about multiple offers.
Multiple offers don't happen at a time like this, they're a thing of the past, right. Wrong.
Multiple offers happen in all types of markets, but in slow markets with high inventories of homes for sale, multiple offers catch almost everyone by surprise. When a really good home gets listed for sale - good location, nice lot, desirable floorplan, updated and impeccable condition, and priced right - it's very common for that home to sell super quickly, often with multiple offers, even in a slow market.
But that's understandable, or it should be, because that's an outstanding house, and while buyers are pickier these days, savvy buyers realize that they've got to act quickly when the right one comes along - despite the slow market.
What's more confounding, and maddening - and it's happened to me when representing buyers in the Tucson Foothills - is when
a less than wonderful house, that's been sitting on the market for quite a while with no action, suddenly gets multiple offers on one particular day.
It's as if the fairy godmother of real estate suddenly waved her magic wand, spreading fairy dust and creating a magical allure, for that house, for that day.
If this sounds nuts, and I know it does, ask anyone who's been in the real estate business for a while. They'll confirm it, but they won't be able to explain it.
Elizabeth Weintraub, on About.com Home Buying / Selling
talks about these unexpected and inexplicable multiple offers,
and offers some advice to help get a leg-up in this situation,
in her recent article,
Competing With Other Home Buyers in Multiple Offer Situations
But she can't explain it either, so I'm sticking with the fairy godmother theory.
