First time home buyers in a Competing or Multiple Bid Situation by Geraldine Santiago
If you are ever in a hot housing market, when everyone seems to be in a buying frenzy, expect to be in a competing bid with one other offer, or (heaven forbid)-- a multiple offer situation with more than one other offer on the table.
Of course, if you are a first time home buyer, and new to the home buying process, this process can undoubtedly be even more frustrating, worrisome and nerve-racking exponentially! To compete or not to compete? How will I survive? Will I survive? What should I do? Will I be able to get the mortgage for it if I go over asking?
As a first time home buyer, making an offer to purchase a property is nerve wracking enough without being in a multiple bid situation. But, if you are seriously thinking about placing an offer, here are a few tips that could help you.
1. it is good to know just how many people are going to place an offer on the property. In some cases, there might be buyers who, for whatever reason, back out of the deal entirely even when they say they will write an offer. Though there might be discussion of multiple bids and offers, one doesn't really know for sure just how many people will be competing against your offer because all offers must be in writing. It could be the case for buyers, facing the same challenges, might want to opt out of writing a contract, for fear of loosing or competing with another buyer altogether.
2. Give your real estate agent the letter of commitment you have received from your financial institution. Adding this along with th contract of purchase and sale shows the seller that you are a serious buyer.
3. Be flexible on the seller's dates. Find out what dates the sellers prefer and be as accommodating as possible to their dates instead of your own.
4. When buying a condo or strata titled property, you might want to go over the documents beforehand so that you know more about the property than the next purchaser. If you are confident enough about the property, you may not want to include this in the conditions for purchasing.
5. Finally, keep calm and breathe! You may not win the bid, but I've been in many situations with buyers, when we did not get the bid the first time around, but for other reasons, the first buyer backed out, and we did get the property after all!
Good luck, I hope this helps!
Geraldine Santiago is a RE/MAX Realtor® licensed in both residential and commercial real estate services, specializing in land assembly projects and land acquisition. She is a published author of three real estate reference books for Self-Counsel Press Ltd. namely the "Complete Home Buyer's Guide for Canadians", "Selling Your Home I Canada" and "Buy and Sell a Recreational Property in Canada" and her recently self-published ebook "How to Band Together with Neighbours in Land Assembly", 2018. She is known for seminars on real estate trends in buying and selling in metro Vancouver.