How to Handle Multiple Offers When Selling Your Home

Multiple offers while selling your home

Listing your home on the market and receiving not a single bid is every real estate agent and homeowner’s biggest nightmare. Every day waiting and watching as people peruse your open house and leave uninterested or without any follow-up is like torture.

What happens, then, in the opposite situation? What do you do when you not only receive one offer in your home, but also multiple bids? Most homeowners neglect to even consider what they should do if their property receives multiple offers while on the market until it actually happens.

Should you find yourself in this particular predicament, read on. We’ve put together some information from today’s best Realtor and real estate agents. If you’re curious as to how to handle multiple offers when selling your home, here’s our advice.

Inform Interested Parties

Once you receive a second (or third) bid on your home, inform all interested parties. That way they know there’s steep competition for your house. This is a great strategy to ensure their bids cater to your interests and afford you with the best and most prosperous of offers.

Pick by Price, but Not Price Alone

Of course, evaluating multiple offers primarily involves with who is willing to pay the most to acquiring your home. However, it shouldn’t be the only consideration. This is particularly true if the bids are close to your initial asking price.

Unstable funding and insecure financial history could complicate matters once it’s time to close the deal. While price itself is one of the biggest factors, it’s also important to think through and evaluate how likely it is that the buyer can deliver those funds.

Cash or Credit?

Another consideration common to those with a highly desirable, hot property on the market is the means by which your buyer plans to pay. Payments offered in cash are immediate and don’t require the often lengthy waiting period associated with a loan approval processes.

Cash offers are usually rare, but assessing the approval rating – that is, seeking out those with pre-approved mortgages – can also help you differentiate between bidders based on financial security.

Compare Contingencies

When a buyer makes an offer, they almost always have a few of those “but” clauses – certain conditions that allow them to back out of the deal if they aren’t met. Comparing these contingencies is another great way to sort through multiple offers.

Whether you receive zero bids or bids by the dozen, selling your home can be a tough, tiresome ordeal. Make it a little easier by hiring real estate agents who know how to close a deal.

If you are buying or selling a house and are looking to hire a successful real estate agent to help you through the process, take a look at AgentHarvest's list of top-ranking local Realtors in your area. We found these agents by examining their sales track records, awards, rankings, client testimonials and by conducting personal interviews.