Setting Reasonable (vs. Inflated) Expectations
Conducting multiple offers, well, is one of the biggest challenges facing a listing agent.
In turn, that requires properly educating and coaching home sellers about the appropriate response timetable; possible negotiating strategies; offer nuances (“asterisk clause,” anyone?); disclosure choices and obligations; and use of MLS showing instructions.
To name just a few considerations. 🙂
Step #2: skillfully implementing the client’s wishes and instructions, while handling (fending off?) a crowd of impatient, aggressive Buyers’ agents.
Realtor practice tip: be clear, consistent, and communicative (“3 C’s”).
3-Ring Six-Ring(?) Circus
So, why do good agents hold off discussing the intricacies and excitement (and sometimes chaos and stress) of multiple offers?
Two reasons:
One. Because, even in a Seller’s market like today’s, most homes don’t sell in multiple offers.
So, devoting more than a few minutes to the subject at the outset of a listing is at best a tangent, and at worst a waste of time.
Moot Point
Reason #2: discussing multiples can send the wrong message.
Even if the agent is careful to damp down Seller expectations, it’s impossible to raise the subject of multiple offers without planting the suggestion, however implicitly, that that might be in the cards.
Maybe . . . maybe not.
Anticipating Multiples (and Not)
Any home can be in multiples if it’s priced cheaply enough.
But, there’s no guaranty that homes that are well-priced — even well-prepped, well-marketed ones — will attract multiple offers, regardless of market conditions.
See also, “Why Realtors Hate Zillow.”
P.S.: How do you know if multiple offers are, shall we say, “accidental” (i.e., due to a pricing mistake)?
Buyers’ agents, at least, can tell from the befuddled, occasionally overwhelmed demeanor of the listing agent.
