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You got multiple offers-but did you get the highest possible price?


Blog by Patricia Houlihan - Personal Real Estate Corporation | January 29th, 2016


Recently I was asked why in multiple offers, some homes seem to be going a lot higher than other similar houses. The person asking was referring to a very crazy price we recently negotiated on an older home, in need of renovations, on a busy street, with only 2 bedrooms up. The assumption was that if one receives multiple offers, they will automatically get the best possible price. In my experience, that is not necessarily true.

Multiple offers are great for sellers-however multiple offers do not guarantee the absolute maximum price will be obtained. In order to squeeze the most money out of a house sale, significant preparation, extensive marketing AND, most importantly, excellent negotiation skills are required. Even with some negotiation skills, most people have a hard time effectively participating in a negotiation. I have been fortunate to have had extensive negotiation training in the over 2 decades that I practiced law. Effective negotiation requires skill/training and a certain type of personality as well as a very client-centered approach to selling homes. 

When we receive multiple offers, I spend time and effort (and skill) to push the prices up as far beyond what the initial offers are as possible. Often we negotiate several offers for a couple of days, AND often in languages other than English (I think multilingual team members are essential), to push buyers higher on their offers. In the time leading up to offer acceptance, through intense negotiation we have been able to take offers on a home priced at under $1 million up to a selling price of $1.25 million. Even prior to the recent market craziness, we were able to negotiate record breaking prices (including the highest sale price ever in North Vancouver*).

Last year some realtors were shocked that we were able to obtain higher than asking price on several homes for which we received only one offer. Despite making it very clear to the buyers' realtors that there were no competing offers, I was still able to push the prices up over asking using a strong negotiation strategy and extensive negotiation experience.

So what does this all mean?: Multiple offers get sellers good prices-but maybe not the highest possible price. However, when combined with skilled negotiation, multiple offers can get sellers the HIGHEST POSSIBLE PRICE!!!

If you would like to know what your home is worth in this market or how I can assist you in ensuring the highest possible sale price for your home, please contact me.


*Based on Multiple Listing Service records for detached homes in North Vancouver