How to get your offer accepted in 2021

The Conejo Valley market is competitive and will likely continue to be for some time. It may take you a few tries to finally get an offer accepted. Here are some strategies I’ve used to help get my offers accepted.

Key points to remember

Not every house gets multiple offers. It depends on the neighborhood, price point, and condition.
For the popular homes, the list price is rarely the final price. Yes, it’s higher.
Accept the fact that you may feel like you’re overpaying. Those who felt like they were overpaying last year no longer feel that way today. More importantly, ask yourself, if I miss out on this house, will I wish I offered more?

If you really want the house, consider offering as much as you feel comfortable – then keep going until you reach your acceptable limit of uncomfortability.
There’s little you can do about a “bully offer”. What’s a bully offer? That’s when a buyer throws out a huge number on their initial offer in hopes that the seller will not bother to entertain any other offers and just accept it.

You can do everything right and still come up short. That’s okay, keep trying and it will happen.

Strategies to get your offer accepted

You may not need to use all of these strategies or any of these strategies. Each transaction is unique.

Pre-approval isn’t enough anymore. A full “credit approval” will make you stand out. That means you’ve actually gone through the underwriting process and you can reduce or even eliminate your loan contingency. Huge advantage.

Shorten your inspection and appraisal contingency down from 17 days to 10-14 days.

If you receive a counter offer with the term: Submit your “Best and Final” offer, counter with an acceleration clause. (Ex. Purchase price to be $5k above highest verified offer not to exceed $xxx,xxx).

Offer to pay for some of the seller’s costs – Title Insurance, Transfer Tax, Escrow Fee. The cost depends on the price of the home. For $1 mil home, the total is approximately $7k.

Write a love letter to the seller. Depending on the situation, a quick letter to the seller can be an effective way to stand out. It makes you a real person versus just names on a page.

Work with an active buyer’s agent. Agent relationships matter. Active agents network with each other and share upcoming listings not yet on the market. Plus, when you’re competing with other buyers, we’ll often help “guide” each other to help make the deal happen with an agent we know and trust.

Surviving Round 1 and Making it to Round 2

Typically, when there are many offers, only the top 2-4 offers will receive counter offers. The goal is to make it to the second round and get included with the multiple counter offers. Most of the time, that’s when you’ll get the counter with “Best and Final” offer as well as additional terms. At least at that point you still have a chance.