If the last time you bought or sold a house was several years ago or anywhere outside Silicon Valley, you may need to forget everything you know about how deals get done.  The process of making an offer, waiting for a counteroffer, and then negotiating back and forth until you come to an agreement is used about as often as a rotary telephone.

This is a more typical scenario for an attractive, well-priced house:

1. The home goes on the market on Friday.
2. Two open houses are held on the weekend.
3. Offers are reviewed on the following Wednesday.
4. There are multiple offers and the best one wins.
5. The house goes into escrow shortly thereafter.

Whereas buying a house used to be a game of poker, the process is now played more like blitz chess. You need to have your strategy down before you play, and then you have to move fast in order to be successful.

To illustrate, here’s a recent example of how I won in a multiple offer:

I recently met a set of buyers looking to purchase a home in Los Altos.   After a little bit of searching and a Saturday open house, we found a home that the buyers fell in love with.  Unfortunately, 7 other buyers also fell in love with the home and we were looking at a cutthroat multiple offer situation.  Here is how we prepared for success:

My buyers needed a loan, but were not preapproved—an absolute essential in this market. I have a lender who works 24/7, so I connected my buyers with him on Sunday. By Monday afternoon, their loan was preapproved.

The seller of this property had already done a property inspection, but not a pest inspection. My buyers wanted their own inspections to feel comfortable making a non-contingent offer—an effective strategy in today’s market. Because I do this a lot, I have a few inspection companies who can work for me on short notice, so I was able to get both inspections done that Monday.

Lastly, we had to figure out what a winning bid would be and come up with the best offer we could make that my buyers would feel comfortable with before the Wednesday offer date. I had already done comparables on sold houses, but I also knew agents with houses that were in escrow, so I was able to get up-to-the-minute sales prices for similar houses. We looked at what was going on in the market, considered my buyers’ finances, and came up with a solid, non-contingent offer at a price we were comfortable with.

Sold! On Wednesday, there were eight offers on the house, including some all cash offers (one buyer came in with a cashier’s check).  The sellers, as is usually the case, did not issue any counter offers. And, most importantly, we won!

It’s dizzying to think that all of this happened in less than a week, but that is the nature of our market today.

To summarize:

When possible, do your due diligence ahead of time so you have peace of mind about your offer.

If you’re going to go for it, go for it. Don’t go in thinking you’ll get a second chance, because you probably won’t.  In situations such as this, it pays to have an agent with strong connections who can move quickly.

If the last time you bought or sold a house was several years ago or anywhere outside Silicon Valley, you may need to forget everything you know about how deals get done.  The process of making an offer, waiting for a counteroffer, and then negotiating back and forth until you come to an agreement is used about as often as a rotary telephone.

This is a more typical scenario for an attractive, well-priced house:

1. The home goes on the market on Friday.
2. Two open houses are held on the weekend.
3. Offers are reviewed on the following Wednesday.
4. There are multiple offers and the best one wins.
5. The house goes into escrow shortly thereafter.

Whereas buying a house used to be a game of poker, the process is now played more like blitz chess. You need to have your strategy down before you play, and then you have to move fast in order to be successful.

To illustrate, here’s a recent example of how I won in a multiple offer:

I recently met a set of buyers looking to purchase a home in Los Altos.   After a little bit of searching and a Saturday open house, we found a home that the buyers fell in love with.  Unfortunately, 7 other buyers also fell in love with the home and we were looking at a cutthroat multiple offer situation.  Here is how we prepared for success:

My buyers needed a loan, but were not preapproved—an absolute essential in this market. I have a lender who works 24/7, so I connected my buyers with him on Sunday. By Monday afternoon, their loan was preapproved.

The seller of this property had already done a property inspection, but not a pest inspection. My buyers wanted their own inspections to feel comfortable making a non-contingent offer—an effective strategy in today’s market. Because I do this a lot, I have a few inspection companies who can work for me on short notice, so I was able to get both inspections done that Monday.

Lastly, we had to figure out what a winning bid would be and come up with the best offer we could make that my buyers would feel comfortable with before the Wednesday offer date. I had already done comparables on sold houses, but I also knew agents with houses that were in escrow, so I was able to get up-to-the-minute sales prices for similar houses. We looked at what was going on in the market, considered my buyers’ finances, and came up with a solid, non-contingent offer at a price we were comfortable with.

Sold! On Wednesday, there were eight offers on the house, including some all cash offers (one buyer came in with a cashier’s check).  The sellers, as is usually the case, did not issue any counter offers. And, most importantly, we won!

It’s dizzying to think that all of this happened in less than a week, but that is the nature of our market today.

To summarize:

When possible, do your due diligence ahead of time so you have peace of mind about your offer.

If you’re going to go for it, go for it. Don’t go in thinking you’ll get a second chance, because you probably won’t.  In situations such as this, it pays to have an agent with strong connections who can move quickly.