BiggerPockets

Hi, well that could be true or they could be sucking you in. Here is your counter if you really want the house. $1,000.00 over the highest and best offer received by a bonifide buyer up to $XXX,XXX.XX, with such offer being verifiable by buyer's agent four days prior to. This offer expires _____hours after the date and time made. Good luck with that, it worked for me in my last REO purchase. Bill

OK. So, how bad do you want this particular house? Are other similar ones readily available at similar prices? What have similar houses in the same neighborhood sold for recently?

If you can dispassionately say you can walk away and find another house you will like every bit as much, either withdraw your offer or just tell them your offer is your highest and best.

If you're about to get a screaming deal, and even bumping up your offer still makes it a screaming deal, then offer more.

If you'll just die if you don't get this particular house, offer more.

Realize a primary residence is not an investment. Its an expensive doo-dad. Its no different than a car. Buy the one that meets your needs and that you can afford.

I have at times responded to this "highest and best" request with a higher offer. I did actually end up buying a house in a situation like that, though after we had a contract we had appraisal issues and I got back to a better price. Much more often I've said "never mind". But for me its just an investment.

I do recommend you treat buying a house like buying a car. There's no such thing as a "dream car" unless you're talking about a Lamborghini or some such. They've probably made 10,000 copies of any particular car. If you're willing to walk out of the dealership without looking back, you're in a much better bargaining position. Unless you're talking about a villa on the cost of some beach resort, its no different with houses.

Thank you guys for useful info!

Originally posted by Bill Gulley

... with such offer being verifiable by buyer's agent ...

Do you know how this can be verified? Seller/sellers agent can write several other "offers", aren't they?

I understand that I should have MY highest number in mind, and I do have it. But, it turns out that any single-offer situation can be easily changed into multiple-offers without any control from the buyer side. Am I understanding correctly?

Hi, I agree with other posts here, there are other deals out there and bidding against yourself is not a good idea,
If you are a home buyer looking for a home to live in and the market is rather limited, as it is in my area, another grand on a house that you want is no big deal, IMO. The location, style of the home and schools can be factors that one must live with. This morning I looked out the window and I had 9 deer in my backyard, I'm a mile an a half from a supercenter and in one of the most sought after areas of town, I can walk down hill to the lake or accross the street to a state conservation area. Now, tell me that's not worth another grand, it is to me and it was still under the asking price. It's not always about numbers at the date of closing. I'm also living in an area I grew up in. Homes in the neighborhood are rarely on the market, chances are the others that looked at the hosue didn't really know this area as I do, in fact, the Realtors didn't know much about it either, other than the obvious location. When I looked at the house another couple with Texas tags was also looking at it, now I'm not going to allow that to happen, LOL! I totally agree that you should never fall in love with a house, especially if it's just an investment, but I'd rather live in something that I will enjoy instead of just knowing I got a steal of a deal. I won't mention that my first wife lived three doors down in highschool and how all the kids would sled down the hill through the woods to a pond, no I won't mention that, I'm just a hard nose investor guy (LOL). I can always sell it for more than I paid, even today, but I'll probably just keep it in the collection. To each is own, what ever floats the boat. What's a few grand on something you want? Good Luck, Bill

Originally posted by Andy H

Thank you guys for useful info!

Originally posted by Bill Gulley

... with such offer being verifiable by buyer's agent ...

Do you know how this can be verified? Seller/sellers agent can write several other "offers", aren't they?

Hi, yes, my plan, which was not necessary, was to make the listing agent to allow my agent to verify the contract through the listing broker with consent of the seller, they could have balckened out the name of the buyers. Evidently they bought it as my purchase price was $1,500 above my original offer, actually mine had a an amount that verification kicked in, so I didn't have to go there. I was rather confident that there was another offer since I saw people looking, you can just kind of read people when they are interested.

I don't know about other real estate boards, but in my area, Realtors (actually Brokers) are very adverse to liability issues, they go to extrems to avoid any potential problem. If a listing agent siad that there were other offers to jack up a deal and there was not another offer at that time, that agent may have his/her stuff flapping in the wind as a misrepresentation. If someone lost a deal and they filed a complaint that could easily be invetigated. Lying, even if it's in the best interest of your client, would mean trouble here. Good Luck, Bill

Originally posted by Bill Gulley

Hi, yes, my plan, which was not necessary, was to make the listing agent to allow my agent to verify the contract through the listing broker with consent of the seller, they could have balckened out the name of the buyers.

Sorry, I am not familiar with this procedure. Would you mind to explain a little bit further, what exactly verifying the contract through the listing broker means? Is this something that Realtors are supposed to know and do on a regular basis?

I am fine with paying 1-2K over, but as you said I just wanted to be confident and sleep well in the future, knowing that I was not a simplest scam victim :D

But in most cases they wont lie about this because if they get caught it would get them in huge trouble. Realtor have a code of ethics they have to follow and they would get in big trouble and lose their license.

lol, that's a good one Brian!