June 10, 2011

How To Win a Bidding War on a House

by David Ursino

One of the things that I’m constantly hearing from my buyer clients in the market that we’re in is “Dave, how do we win in bidding wars?”

There’s a short supply of homes out there, there’s a low inventory and there’s a lot of buyers because of the interest rates. So this creates a seller’s market; multiple offers are often something that happen. Now, how do we actually win?

Well here’s my strategy, and obviously the strategy has to be customized to each situation but the one thing that we have to do is to take a look at the property and see what it’s really worth so I do a proper CMA, Comparative Market Analysis to figure out the value of the home. Remember the listing price – if there’s a bidding war, it may be under listed or it may be listed right at market value. It’s important for us to know that.

Once I figure out what the property is worth, then you and I would talk and figure out what do we want to do:

• How do we want to approach the situation?
• Is it better to go in with a single shot, our best offer? Or, is there going to be room to negotiate?
• Are they going to send back all the offers? Then there’s going to be a chance to improve our offer.
• Are we the first offer, are we the second offer? If there’s only one offer before us, are they going to improve their offer or is that it?
• They’ve received a faxed offer and it’s not going to get improved

There are a lot of different things that can happen in multiple offers but the main thing is to stick to your guns. Make a plan ahead of time, figure out how you’re going to deal with it, figure out how many offers there are on the property. Is it just 2? Or is it a whole bunch – 12 or 13? Then figure out if you want to pay slightly above market value. That depends on your personal situation but it’s a discussion we’d have.

So if you have any questions on winning a bidding war, or if you’ve been in a situation where you keep losing home after home because of these bidding wars, then by all means, shoot me an email…I’m at [email protected].

Watch the video

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About the Contributor

Vaughan real estate agent David Ursino brings a novel approach to real estate in Vaughan. Through over 10 years of successful sales and marketing experience, David understands the value of building great relationships with customers. He is dedicated to delivering the highest level of service and brings his passion to each and every real estate transaction. Being Vaughan’s first real estate video blogger, David knows what it takes to succeed in today’s online market. He specializes in the Woodbridge, Maple, Kleinburg and Thornhill areas. Learn more about Vaughan real estate agent David Ursino.