Written by Peter O’Malley – Real Estate Agent and author of best-selling publications, Real Estate Uncovered and Inside Real Estate
When you are selling a property, the only thing more nerve wracking than an early offer is not receiving an early offer.
As the property market transitions from boom mode to a more stable and predictable market environment, vendors cannot afford to make the wrong decision with the right offer.
In a rising market, a vendor can decline a good offer knowing that another strong offer is highly likely to emerge.
In the current market, a home seller may not receive the multitude of offers they were hoping for. They may only see one, possibly two, or rarely three decent offers during the campaign.
After that, bargain hunters looking to drive the price down will outnumber fair minded buyers.
While there are still many good buyers in the market, the market depth is lot shallower since APRA tightened lending into the market and the retail banks raised interest rates independent of the RBA.
A vendor’s understandable concern about accepting an early offer is underselling their property. The balance to this concern is the best buyers tend to emerge early in the sales campaign.
The best buyers enquire almost instantly when a suitable listing hits the market.
The best buyers have often been searching for 60-90 days. A buyer that makes an offer on a new listing to the market is at the end of their property search – while the seller is at the start of their buyer search.
Vendors and their agents need to be pragmatic and unemotional in how they respond to such offers.
An early offer can inadvertently build complacency. Agents know that genuine buyers willing and able to make an unconditional finance approved offer are worthy of respect and consideration.
If you receive a fair market priced offer early in the campaign, you need a good reason to decline the offer.
Sure, negotiate the buyer up in price to their maximum, but declining an early offer simply because it’s an early offer can be a regrettable and expensive mistake.
As we head into 2022, premium listings will still create strong buyer competition and achieve an excellent selling price.
However, it’s worth noting there won’t be the ferocious bidding wars across all segments of the market that we experienced throughout 2021.
The hardest offer to accept is not the one just below your aspirational price point, the hardest offer to accept is the one which is lower than what you previously rejected.
And it’s a common real estate mistake you won’t hear at the dinner party.