It can happen, we made an offer on a home once that received 7 offers the first day!!! Our offer wasn't the top offer so we lost out. If we would have had it to do all over again, we probably would have tweaked our offer by a few thousand, but even then I'm not sure our best offer would have been good enough.

"RE wanted us to make a full price offer � or close � since she knows we really want this house, but we decided to make an initial offer of 775. "

Guess the agent know what he/she was doing!
Why did you go so low if you really wanted that house?

That's the same story in our area with bank-owned homes. (I'm assuming it was bank owned?)

I had a similar situation with a couple who wanted to put an offer on a newly listed bank owned home in one of our area's prime neighborhoods. I kept telling them, "It's going to go quickly, and there's a chance it will go for above asking price."

Instead of a minimum full-price offer, they decided to go much lower. No surprise, they didn't get it. There were something like 22 offers on that house.

I know it seems (based on comments about Realtors on this board) that Realtors are always just trying to upsell you, but often they just know how those deals work.

Yes  this is bank owned  sorry if I was not clear on that.

This is not the only REO in this area  there are not a whole lot  but there are a few. We looked at 2 others yesterday and 2 last weekend. This is not the nicest of the foreclosures on the market  it just happens to be in our preferred neighborhood.

IÂm just very confused. Houses in this area have fallen quite a bit  just like most of the country - and I believe this will continue  I donÂt believe the bottom has been reached. Houses are sitting for a long time  often dropping in price several times before being purchased or pulled off the market. We were told that ours was the *only* offer when the owners were trying to sell short. So where did all of these other buyers come from on the very first day???

RE wanted us to make a full price offer  or close  since she knows we really want this house,

It's all supply and demand. And that's not always ONLY the outside world. If your own personal demand for a house is higher, you should probably be willing to pay a slightly higher price.

Maybe the other buyers also preferred this neighborhood, and were waiting for something to come up.

Maybe the other buyers also preferred this neighborhood, and were waiting for something to come up.

Yes  but on the first day it hit the MLS? And a Wednesday at that? I would have at least thought that most of those people would make an appt for some day this week, or weekend  but the first day?

Totally common. Most people (and Realtors) aren't fond of short sales. They're extraordinarily time consuming, and you may have to wait weeks or months for an answer.

A bank-owned home is MUCH easier to purchase.

The bank owned home we bought a few months back already had 3 offers coming in when we put our offer down. I was literally inside that house within the first 20 minutes it went on the market. I wrote an offer several hours later. Since I know the drill, and I knew that this house was in a *highly* sought after neighborhood, we did a full price offer and a 2 week closing, and also worded the inspection clause to make it easier on the bank.

One thing you have to realize is that if the house is in a prime location, Realtors will often have buyers or investors lined up and ready to pounce. I have 2 or 3 of those types of buyers right now. They're just in a holding pattern, waiting for the right deal to come along. They're liquid, and they're ready to move quickly. Part of my job is to stay on top of the new listings, and if a good REO comes up, I'll have a call in to my buyers within minutes, often having them in the door within a half hour. Not all properties move that quickly here, but for the right house in the right neighborhood, there will be fierce competition.

Also, for buyers like that, they'll buy it just for the location and potential. They do not spend hours combing it over, but rather they just walk in, know the area's good, know the bones are good, and they'll write an offer on the spot. I've seen the whole process take less than 45 minutes.

One other thing, nearly all of my showings are on weekdays. That's one of the strangest things I discovered when I started in Real Estate. I imagined all of these evenings and weekends, but instead, I found that buyers I worked with preferred daytime showings, and will often meet me for a lunch showing, or a morning showing.

The same thing goes for my listings. 99% of the showings on my houses are during the weekdays. Out of those, almost all are morning or mid-afternoon.

or, the realtor is lying about the number of offers to get you to increase your offering price

She was informed *after* she made the offer that other offers came in. Let's not throw unnecessary stones at the Realtors. ;)

Did they not do a "Multiple Offer Form"? Here, if more than one offer comes in, everyone has to sign a form saying that they'll submit their "best and final offer" by whatever date the bank/real estate office dictates.

Then after the offer is accepted, we get a letter of rejection saying the bank went with another offer.

WeÂve not been asked to sign a Multiple Offer Form or anything else yet. I would hate to think the listing agent is lying  but the thought did enter my mind.

Or perhaps the other offers are from Investors who make very low offers on all REOs basically sight unseen  which would mean that they would offer less than the 6.5% of list price that we offered since the list price is in line with comps  not less???

I saw a new MLS listing come up and called my realtor right away. The owner didn't want the tenants bothered too much and required an offer and substantial earnest money before viewing. There were 2 tri-plexes on offer. We were first in line and because we already had a signed earnest money agreement we were able to close the deal on the first property. The second people to view the properties (the same day) immediately bought the 2nd tri-plex and put a back-up offer on ours - so yes, things can happen that way.

Five offers? The agent isn't lying. "Another offer is coming in" from the selling Realtor is usually the shtick.

Bank owned and five offers means your agent knew what they were doing and gave you the best possible advise... which you, for whatever reason, chose not to take. Think of it as a learning experience. If you have a "best and final" opportunity and decide you "really, really" want the house, bid accordingly.

Bank owned and five offers means your agent knew what they were doing and gave you the best possible advise.

I just donÂt understand how you can say that. There are many homes sitting on the market in this area. There are many empty homes sitting on the market in this area. There are several REOs on the market in this area. There are several comparable homes (both REO and not) asking the same listing price  SITTING on the market in this area. How would my RE know that we should offer full price for this one???

IÂm starting to think the other offers must be investors who are looking for really good deals and I doubt they offered 93.5% of list.

Jeri - What is it about this house that makes it so appealing to you? (Versus all of the other vacant and for sale homes in your area.)

And is this factor something no one else cares about? Or would it have value to many buyers?

It doesn't matter who the other offers were from--they got the house. Usually the reason other empty houses are on the market is that the owners are not realistic, and some banks who have foreclosed are impossible to work with. When you see big commercial buildings that have been empty for years--they are usually bank owned, and its one of the big banks. Some banks are easy to work with--and will let some people know in advance of the listing.

I second sweeby's post. Whatever it was that made THIS house so attractive to you probably made THIS house attractive to the other buyers. Maybe they had been looking for a house for a long time without finding something they fell in love with, so when a new listing came on the market, they went to see it right away.

Also, you said that 829 was in line with the comps, so it's logical to think that the asking price is reasonable and that's what this house would sell for; therefore, if you really want the house, that's what you should offer. Your agent knew the price was fair and she knew you wanted the house. And she probably knew how long you waited (presumably looking at other houses) and still wanted this house.

When I bought my current house. the asking price was very close to what comparable homes were selling for, so I felt like it was a fair price. I really wanted this house - it has a very desireable lot and neighborhood. I made a full-price offer.

I don't know much about bank-owned real estate, so I'm not sure why the bank didn't come back and ask you if you had a higher offer, but perhaps they just wanted to get rid of it after owning it so long.

"Whatever it was that made THIS house so attractive to you probably made THIS house attractive to the other buyers."

I agree.
I don't know why the OP seems so surprised that someone else could possibly want the same house she really wanted!

? for the OP - why did you ignore the Realtor's advice if you really wanted this house and the comps were in line?

Jeri, you seem surprised that others made offers on the first day just as you did and concluded that they must be from investors making a lowball offer sight unseen. Why?

You, yourself stated that you saw the house back in April when the owner listed it as a short sale and you've been following it for the past four months. Why are you so surprised that others might have done that as well?

Whatever it was that made THIS house so attractive to you probably made THIS house attractive to the other buyers.

Ditto.

There are several bank-owned homes in our area too. But the ones that go the quickest are the ones that are the most desirable: good floor plan, good neighborhood, room sizes, general "feel" of the house, etc.

IÂm starting to think the other offers must be investors who are looking for really good deals and I doubt they offered 93.5% of list.

As I said upthread, if the bones and potential are good, many investors will indeed offer near full price. We offered full price on our investment house. I knew the area, and I knew this one to be a good deal, even at full price. Some of the investors I work with do get a lot of their properties from "off-market", meaning they buy them for much less than asking from estates, divorces, etc. But a lot of them will buy REO's that are a good deal, and if they see enough potential, they'll put offers in that are near full price.

That's assuming it was an investor who even put the offer in. Another thing to understand is that the same way Realtors have "pocket listings" (listings that they know are coming up or may be available), they also have "pocket buyers", those buyers waiting in the wings who are looking for a certain type of house.

I just sold a house to a friend of mine. We walked in about 1 hour after the house was on the market and made an offer. Another couple lost out on that house, and were very upset. But here's the thing, I'd already showed her 5 or 6 homes. I knew *exactly* what she was looking for, to the point that when I saw this house go "active", I called and set up the appointment immediately for her to see it, and told her we needed to get over there ASAP. I knew this house would go quickly, and I knew it would be perfect for her. She walked into the house, said "This is it.", and we wrote an offer. I'm sure it looked suspicious/fishy to the buyers that lost out, but the fact was that we'd already done a lot of searching, and so we were well prepared when the "right" home came up. She offered full price, btw.

It's unfortunate that you lost out on this house, but really, what you experienced is totally normal.

One other thing, there are several factors which make one offer better than another:

-Earnest money. Obviously the more the better.

-Closing date. Most banks want these houses off their books yesterday.

-Financing. Cash is good. FHA/VA is bad. Conventional mortgages are better.

-Repair fund requests. Most REOs are offered (in our area) as-is, but still many buyers want to ask the bank to fix this or that.

Bottom line, the bank is looking for the most money, in the shortest amount of time, with the least hassles. So even though dollar-for-dollar the offers might be the same, they may just want to go with the offer that would close more quickly, or the offer that has more solid financing.

The house was for sale for a long time last winter  the owners tried to get out with what they owed ($926), but couldnÂt. Then, the foreclosure process started and they tried to do a short sale. We were told that ours was the *only* bid on the house.

What this house has that is high on our list is a large loft that we want for our 2 girls "play" room. But the house has some oddities to accommodate that play area that we thought would turn other buyers off. This house is 3100 sq. ft but only 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. We reasoned that most people looking for that size house would want at least 4 bedrooms and we have noticed that homes in the area with 5 bedrooms seem to go faster than other homes. Also, the master is down stairs while the 2 kidÂs rooms are upstairs  our RE said most parents want to be on the same floor as their kids and was worried about resale because of this. Also, the master is not very big  probably because it has to share the first floor with everything else. Most homes in this area and especially this size have large master suites. Also  there are zero upgrades  white tile and linoleum floors in the kitchen and bath rooms. We have seen several homes with wood, or tile, or even marble floors and granite counters. So, we were hoping that all of these things would work in our favor.

When I said that this house was in line with comps  I meant current listings  that are sitting. So I fully expected this house to go for less.

"pocket buyers" Apparently, this was something else I was wrong about. I really have tried hard to do my homework and I am frustrated that I am soooooo wrong about everything. We have our 20%+ down payment sitting in the bank, verifiable income, good credit, and donÂt have to sell anything  we can have a fast escrow. Our price range is $800,000  I guess from all the reading I have done, I thought we were the minority. :-\

I truly believe that we are buying into a falling market  which means that we will loose value in the foreseeable future. A house is more than just an investment, so we are willing to take this gamble  but we just want to be smart about it. We are in too good of shape to make a stupid mistake at this time in our lives. :-\

As for our RE  I truly donÂt believe that she knows this area very well. I didnÂt feel as though she was working with us to establish a best offer  I believe that she wants us happy and if that means buying the house, then we should offer as much as possible. But in this market, IÂm not yet convinced that this is the best strategy. Perhaps I am wrong about all of this tooÂ

I truly appreciate all of your help and I hope that I have not offended anyone.

Jeri

I am so sorry you didn't get the house you wanted. Real estate is so strange, isn't it. With prices still dropping, I'm sure in the long run you will be glad. Something better will turn up. We low balled on our first offer and didn't get it. Unbeknown to us, they to had gotten a few offers. We are so glad now that we didn't get the house. Things do have a way of working out for the best. Hope you aren't beating yourself up. I would have started out with a lower offer too. Who would have thought........

Hmmm, it sounds as if the things that made it "odd" actually made it stand out in a good way rather than bad.

If for the same price, buyers can get a floorplan with a bonus area for kids, crafts, office, etc, that may have been what made this one so special.

As far as the master being separate, that is huge selling *feature* in our area. A master down with all of the kids' rooms up, as well as a playroom up means that if a family has teenagers, the parents have the whole lower level, and the kids have the upper.

It sounds as if this house had a unique configuration, resulting in more flexible space than the standard home on the market.

Things do have a way of working out for the best. Hope you aren't beating yourself up.

Thanks mpp  We are told that at least one offer is for more than the asking price. Even our "best and final" would not have been for asking so we are not beating ourselves up. We will try to learn from this, continue to watch the market, save even more $$, and probably wait until after the election to see what the market does.

a playroom up means that if a family has teenagers, the parents have the whole lower level, and the kids have the upper.

Yep  thatÂs why we liked it. Still, we thought that most would want at least 4 bedrooms  either because they have more than 2 kids or because they want a guest room in that size house. Oh wellÂ

Jeri

I had four offers on my house in one week. My husband works for GM so we were told to lower the price (we get what we paid so this was fine) so it was in line with their appraisal. The local plant had closed so the market took a hit. Everyone told my I would never sell-don't bother with staging.

However, we get three percent addtional money if we sell so I thought it was worth a shot. I cleaned, decluttered, got rid of personal stuff and added attractive accents (why don't I do this when I live there and can enjoy it!). I had three offers within a week. Also, people requested to see the house after it was under contract in case the deal fell through. It was only three years old and showed well. You never know. Despite all the doom and gloom people are still buying houses.

Sometimes a house will have something special about it. It could be it's location, view, backyard, layout, larger garage, kitchen, it could be many things. On paper they might not seem very special but they get a lot of interest.

In my recent experience, I think there are some housing markets that are picked over - for lack of a better description. No doubt there are some very fine houses still sitting, but in my case the houses that had been on the market for a period of time had some kind of issue. On a semi-busy street, weird colors interior/exterior, something up with the kitchen layout, etc. Those sort of things.

I was expecting a wide open market with tons to choose from. That was not the case.

I sold my house in less than a week before a sign officially went up in the yard and to the first people who walked thru (prearranged showing). Other houses were for sale in my neighborhood at the time and many of them are still on the market. Each one has some kind of an issue; some big, some minor but issues none the less. The house we had for sale was well maintained, kept updated and had many features and upgrades that are popular right now. That's why it went so quickly.

The house I purchased had been *sold* twice before. Each time the deal fell thru for some reason. The first buyers were unexpectedly transferred one week before their scheduled close and the second buyers had an active contract with a contingency to sell their current house. We were in a position to buy the house with no contingencies so the builder had to tell the second buyers sorry but he couldn't wait any longer and chose to sell to us. Both of those buyers had full asking price contracts, btw.

Point being that my new house was - in a way - off the market for a while and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time to get it. We were lucky.

This experience has left me questioning all the doom and gloom a little. I know there are real issues going on out there but I also believe that there still is a normal drone of people living life. Not everyone is unemployed, not everyone is on the verge of financial ruin and losing their house, and not everyone has rotten credit or are stuck with bad loans or whatever.

Because of what's been put out there by the media, I do think that buyers in some areas have been given false indicators. All I know for sure is that the reality of my recent RE buying and selling experience didn't sync up to what I was expecting based on what I had been reading/hearing.

My real estate agent today mentioned a house that was a short sale...his clients put in a full price, all cash offer. Didn't get the house. There were 47 other offers. People have been sitting back waiting for the market to hit bottom. There's a lot of pent-up demand.