Multiple offers in Sequim! It’s no small challenge when you find your ideal retirement home in sunny Sequim WA, and as you submit your offer you find out there are multiple offers and then backup offers! Bidding wars in Sequim? This has never happened at this level in the history of the Sequim real estate market, and I’ve been here for 26 years. What can you do?
The following is a true story, and it happened to my buyer clients. If you’re thinking about buying a home in Sequim, this will be relevant for you. You’ll want to know how to deal with the possibility of multiple offers, and it’s important to understand a first offer, a primary offer, a backup offer, simultaneous multiple offers, and escalation clauses.
Help! Sequim Homes Are Selling Fast
A delightful couple from California wanted to buy a home in Sequim and retire in the Rain Shadow. Sequim is far from the cares that are, and the crime and traffic and chaos of the big cities, so Sequim was the perfect choice. They did what all diligent buyers do: They searched the online Sequim MLS and watched homes come and go, and they kept a list of favorites, most of which kept going into a pending status. The time finally came for a trip to Sequim, so they reached out to their Sequim Buyer’s Agent, Chuck Marunde. That would be me. And they scheduled showings for several homes that were possibilities.
While they were in Sequim, they stayed in their RV at the John Wayne RV Park, and they drove around and looked at various homes with me. They even made an offer on one home that was over priced even in this market, and their offer was turned down by the seller. The listing agent explained to me that the seller thought they could get more if they waited. Finally after several weeks, we found the ideal home, and my clients and I discussed how to draft the offer.
I knew there could be multiple offers in this current Sequim real estate market, and I confirmed this with the listing agent. This meant that the offer I drafted for my buyers had to take this into consideration. Of course, we had no idea how many multiple offers there would be, but just the fact that there were going to be two or more made this a much more challenging offer. It had to be drafted in such a way that my clients had a good probability of winning, but without excessive bidding or unwise financial decisions that would impact them for the rest of their lives.
The result? I got a call from the listing agent telling me that my clients won the day, and the home was theirs, and then she added that there were multiple offers, 11 to be precise. Wow!
How Can I Complete With Multiple Offers on a Home?
This is not the first time my buyers have won in a situation with multiple offers in Sequim. We’ve done it many times over the past few years. Why and how do my clients and I accomplish this so often? Well, if I shared secrets I’ve learned in four decades in real estate, including 20 years as a real estate attorney, and with the insider knowledge I have of how all the other brokerages work and how they make decisions, in addition to principles of human behavior (psychology) that I’ve spent a life time studying, I would essentially be holding a mini-seminar for all Sequim Realtors, and we don’t want to do that, right? God bless my colleagues, and let me say here I get along great with them, and I sincerely appreciate my fellow Realtors in Sequim. I enjoy working with them, too. But I’m not going to share secrets that help me be an Exclusive Buyer’s Agent in Sequim. There’s too much at stake here for my buyer clients.
Every transaction is different. Every buyer has different needs and financial abilities, and each house is unique in a market where the retiree profile intersects with all other factors. Knowing how the parts work together, and understanding the market and other buyers and their agents is key to competing in a market where we are seeing multiple offers. If I have the privilege of representing you as a buyer, you’ll learn how all works when we draft your offer in order to give you the best and highest probability of getting your dream home with multiple offers.
Last Updated on December 29, 2020 by Chuck Marunde
