What???? Thirteen Offers on a House? In a Buyer’s Market??? A Clever Strategy Revealed!!
Okay, normally I’m not much of a fan of the overuse of question marks, but in this case I’ll make an exception. Here’s why: I’m working with a client and a few days ago we submitted an offer. It turns out there were thirteen offers on this house. Yes, you read that right. Thirteen. In a buyer’s market.
All right, now the full disclosure: this was a bank-owned (REO) property and the bank cleverly listed the property, probably worth about $40-45,000, at $25,000. So of course everyone and their brother in the market hoping to buy and flip houses (and some, like my client, who wanted to live there for a couple of years before selling) were there in the first couple of days submitting offers. I’ve seen this work identically for another REO property where the final selling price was $42,000 on a house originally priced at $25,000.
Underpricing big-time is a very good strategy for a very low priced home, by the way. And you know, this may work for a regular home seller too, as long as it’s clear any offers will be presented at the same time about a week after the house is listed. It basically becomes a week-long auction.
I may have a chance to suggest this to a client. If I do, I’ll let you know how it works.