How To Choose the Best Offer

When your listing gets multiple offers, how should you choose one?

The ideal scenario when you’re selling your house is receiving multiple offers that all look really good, but how do you choose between them? That’s the question I’ll answer today. 

When offers come in, I put them in a spreadsheet and rank them based on price and risk. This puts the offers in an ordered format. I share this with the seller, and we discuss it. 

I make recommendations on which offer to accept based on the seller’s objectives, price expectation, risk tolerance, and current situational factors. If a seller is buying a home on a certain date, and they need the proceeds of this sale, then we are looking for the offer with the absolute lowest risk and greatest certainty that it’ll close, even if it's not the highest price.

"I make recommendations based on the seller’s objectives, price expectation, risk tolerance, and current situational factors. "

Risk comes from whether or not the buyer will fulfill the terms of the offer. If they can’t, we look at what type of contingencies are in the offer that would allow the buyer to back out of the transaction without penalty. Here’s a secret: earnest money deposits are relatively meaningless because they don’t offer sellers much protection. Overall, when you're selecting the best offer, it's important to feel confident that that buyer will fulfill what they have signed off on in that contract.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me by phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you.