I love this time of the year in the real estate world! There are so many more inquiries to field, lots of new listings to preview and this year, there are tons of excited buyers to work with. I have been hanging out on Trulia – marketing my listings and answering questions on Trulia Voices. This afternoon, someone posted a question looking for advice about how to choose a house; she admitted that she actually has offers accepted on THREE different houses in three different towns. The question generated several answers from Realtors across New Jersey – almost all of the responders blasted this person and their real estate agent for making offers on multiple properties. I would reprint the question here, but the original author has already deleted it! My response was a little kinder than the others and I got an email a little while ago from Trulia saying that I gave the Best Answer! Woo Hooo! Anyway, here is what I said,
“Only you can decide which house is best for you. While getting a “bargain” is a great thing in the short term, don’t lose sight of the fact that this will be your HOME, maybe for years to come. You want to be comfortable there and a difference of a couple of thousand or even $10,000 in the long run really doesn’t compare with being happy with where you are living. Also, while I agree in principal with the agents who stated that there might be ethical issues with making multiple offers on different houses – I don’t think there are any rules preventing it. Nothing says your realtor is lying – the offers can be presented in such a way as to let the seller know that their house is one of several in which you are interested and that you are hoping to find the best value possible. Not too different from a seller receiving multiple offers and choosing only one. Good luck to you!”
How do you feel about writing offers on multiple properties at the same time? Please comment – let’s breathe a little life into my blog, I’d love to hear from you!
