at the Georgia Real Estate Commission (regardless of whether such claims have merit or not). And as such, REALTORS®
entering the world of multiple offers should
be prepared for the issues that often arise in these transactions and be ready to perform at the top of their games.
Second, multipleoffer transactions are risky because all
interested buyers may end up losing interest in the prop - erty. As such, it is a little like fishing with two separate rods and snagging two fish at the same time. If the seller is not careful in reeling in the fish, both may get away. Some sellers fail to appreciate this risk as thoughts of multiple buyers bidding up the price of their homes dance in their heads. REALTORS®
would do well to gently remind their
seller clients (preferably in writing) that while things may work out better financially than the seller had hoped because of multiple offers, there is also a risk of losing both buyers depending on the strategy selected by the seller.
How can a seller drive two, and in some cases more,
buyers away in a multiple offer transaction? It’s easy. Some buyers will not play the game of getting into a bidding war over a piece of real property and upon learn - ing of other offers will choose to walk away instead. In other cases, if a prospective buyer feels like he or she is being held in reserve while the seller negotiates with another buyer, the prospect may also feel slighted and move on to other houses. Finally, even if the high bidder puts the property under contract, for any number of reasons, he or she may walk away from the deal. There
are few letdownsmore disappointing for sellers than to go from having two or more buyers bidding on the seller’s property to none. Therefore, to avoid being blamed for the seller’s good fortune turning into misfortune, the key decisions on how best to handle multiple offers should be made by the seller. At the top of the list of decisions the seller should make in a multiple offer situation is whether to: 1) invite all interested buyers to make their highest and best offers; or 2) negotiate with one buyer while trying to keep the others in reserve.
The third risk with multiple offers is the seller mis tak -
enly selling the property to two different buyers. While the likelihood of such an event occurring may seem im prob - able, it occurs far more frequently than one might think. The most common scenario where this occurs is when the seller has made an outstanding counteroffer to one buyer and a second buyer then comes along and makes a better offer that the seller simply cannot refuse. Sometimes, a seller, anxious to accept the second offer, will do so before withdrawing the counteroffer in the first transaction. As luck would then have it, the open counteroffer always
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