Is the First Offer on Your Home the Best Offer?

Today I’d like to Mythbust one of the most common questions I get, which is, “Is the first offer you receive on a home always the best offer?”

In my experience, the first offer you get on your house is the best offer about 80% of the time. If you’re a buyer in that dangerous period during the first few weeks that the home is on the market and you are serious about buying the home, you really need to put a serious offer in right away.

A client of ours recently received a full-price offer from a well-qualified buyer and was wondering whether he should accept it or wait for others to come in. We advised him to take it. This is a good situation to be in, and if it’s a good offer, you won’t want to risk losing it. If you find yourself in this situation as a seller, your first inclination may be to wait for better offers to come in. This is a bad idea. Here’s why:

A few weeks ago, another one of our clients received a full-price offer on his home before we even got the “For Sale” sign in on his front lawn. This seller decided not to take this offer because the home had not been listed on the MLS yet. Two weeks and 18 showings later, the overwhelming feedback was, “The home is overpriced.”

Unfortunately, we’re going to end up selling this home for less than full price, even though the homeowner originally had a full-price offer in his hand. Hindsight is 20-20, but even though we recommended that the seller take the original offer, the reality is that waiting for other offers is going to cost this seller between $10,000 and $15,000.

To answer the original question, most of the time, the first offer you receive—unless it’s completely unreasonable—is going to be the best offer. In general, the longer a home sits on the market, the lower the offers are on it.

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The longer a home sits, the lower the offers on it will be.

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If you’re a buyer and you’re looking to buy a home that’s been sitting on the market for over 60 days, you may be able to go in with a bit of a lower offer. In today’s low-inventory market, though, if a home has been on the market for just a few weeks and you’re serious about it as a buyer, you will want to make a serious offer right away.

As far as this myth goes, I’d say that the statement, “The first offer is the best offer” is generally confirmed in most cases.

If you have any other questions about real estate myths or just real estate in general, please call me directly or send me an email. I’d be happy to help you!