How to Win a Bidding War

Hi, Kevin Yoder with Yoder Real Estate, powered by eXp. Back again for another episode of KevinYoder.tv. And this of course goes on our blog at yoderrealestate.com. Please check out all of our other videos there. If you like what you’re hearing here, there’s hundreds more that we’ve done for sellers and home buyers, or homeowners if the topic is appropriate. Today, we have a very market-specific message that I’m going to talk about, and that is how to win a bidding war. Now I’ve done other videos that are similar to this in the last, I would say, 60 days. And the reason why I’m doing this again is because it’s coming up, of course, and it happens to be the most appropriate and the most important thing that we can figure out how to do as agents to guide buyers and, of course, buyers to guide themselves by aligning themselves with the right strategies.

Three parts to win a bidding war on a house

So I’m going to hit you somewhere today that you may not have heard before, and that’s okay. And I want to make sure that I’m giving you the right tools so that you can win in this market. And when the market shifts, of course, we’ll be giving you those tools, those tactics, those strategies to make sure that you have a winning formula for getting into your dream home, owning the keys. The biggest challenge right now of course is that there’s usually 30 or 40 offers, sometimes even 50 for one home. Only one buyer gets to live there and the other 30, 40 buyers have to live in regret on that decision on what they didn’t do to get the bid, or maybe what they couldn’t do or what their agent couldn’t do. So today, I’m going to break this down for you into three parts. Number one is going to be the mindset of the agent. Two is the mindset of the home buyer. And three are going to be the five parts of an offer. I know it’s a lot, but let me just break it down for you quickly.

One: Mindset of the real estate agent

Strong & Confident
It is essential that the mindset of your agent is strong, because that level of confidence that your agent has or doesn’t have is going to either allow them to convey that to the other party or not. And so it’s essential that your agent is confident, not arrogant, but confident. Confident enough to be able to present your situation in a clear and compelling way, confident enough to call the listing agent and ask questions about what that seller wants, so that your agent can come back to you and you can craft a plan together.

Now before you sell your home, it is advisable to focus on those low cost, high return items

Two. Mindset of the home buyer

How badly do you want to buy the house

The second part is the mindset of you, the buyer. If you’re looking to buy a home, you have to realize what game is being played here. And it’s your agent’s job to let you know that. This is not for the faint of heart, this is not your mother’s and father’s real estate market. This is a real estate market defined by low inventory, high demand, and people are fighting over properties. Not physically, sometimes maybe, but emotionally. And the buyer that wins is the one who wants to win the most, it’s that simple, and yet that complicated when it comes down to getting your offer accepted. So ask yourself a serious question, how badly do I want the home? And your agent should be asking you that as well. And those buyers that are actually living in the home, they want the home more badly, they have the means by which they can make that happen, so I would encourage you to get clear on the game that’s being played.

What are you willing to do to buy the house

And sometimes it means that you’re not able to play the game and there are many home buyers that are in a situation where they need to buy. For example, they’ve sold their home and they have 30 days. And it’s okay, take a step aside. If you don’t want to win, then you’re probably not going to put the best foot forward to make sure that your offer is a winning strategy. So mindset of your agent, mindset of yourself, work together and get that offer accepted. If you really want the home, that’s the name of the game now. It’s no longer, how much can I get a discount on the property? But how badly do I want to live here? And what am I willing to do to make it happen?

Five components of an offer

Of course, your agent should be able to guide you with that. At Yoder Real Estate, we have three specific strategies that we use for our agents that they’re able to help their buyers get into their dream home. If you want to know more about that, reach out to us here. The five components of an offer are:

Price
Down payment
Earnest money deposit
Closing date, and then
The 5th category

Three: The 5th component of an offer

[The 5th component includes] miscellaneous things that we can do. And this is where we really shine: the fifth category. That has taken a major upgrade in the last six months.

These are the nuance pieces, such as inspection contingencies, and appraisal gaps, and, and, and. And there’s always ways that we can use that fifth category to influence the seller to take a closer look at your offer. It is not always price. Throw it out the window, price is a factor. There are other things that are as important to a seller as the price. And so if your agent doesn’t have the strategy, then you’re not going to be able to get that. If you want to know more about how to win, how to be a winning buyer which has the keys at the closing table, you’re the one that wants to live in the home, you have to do that by putting together a strategy using those five components, focusing on that fifth one as the most relevant one.

Okay, hopefully this has been helpful for you today. If you want to dig deeper into any of that I covered today from the mindset of the buyer, to the agent, and all the way to the five strategies, please reach out to us at Yoder Real Estate. We are here to help you win, and how do you win? You get the keys. How do you get the keys? Through a winning strategy. And I’ll be coming back on here next week and sharing a little bit more on this one, because it is the most relevant and we are getting the most questions on it. Until then, have an awesome week, have an awesome spring. Spring is in the air, let’s go out there and have some fun and get into some real estate. Have an awesome day.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search
Asking yourself “what is the value of my home” in today’s market?
Check out our Free Online Home Price Estimation Tool.
Call me at (616) 942-2449 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation