What Should You As a Charlotte Home Buyer Do With Regards to Back-Up Offers?

Some days it stinks to be a buyer who has fallen in love with a home that others are also in love with!

Many Charlotte real estate agents and their buyers have experienced the ‘bad taste’ of submitting a back-up Offer only to be ‘used’ to strengthen the seller’s position with the primary buyer. That really does burst a Charlotte home buyer’s bubble, to say the least.

I have actually had buyers who didn’t want to submit the back-up but, were fully ready to submit an Offer should the original deal go south. My recommendation is to go ahead, submit and solidify that back-up Offer NOW!

Here’s why–I don’t know how many OTHER agents have suggested the same ‘let us know and we’ll submit an Offer.’ I’ve experienced this only to find my buyers in a multiple-Offer situation and my buyers either lose out or they wind up having to pay more for the property.

Here are 3 scenarios in which I have recently been involved –

1. Back-up was not submitted; instead, we wrote an Offer when the first buyer bowed out, and found ourselves in a multiple Offer situation (unbeknownst to us), losing out to a higher bidder. Unfortunately the listing agent did a disservice to the sellers by not coaching them with regards to asking for highest and best. Had that agent done that, my buyers WOULD have come up in their Offer price. In fact, in the end, my buyers would have paid MORE than what they actually sold the home for!

2. Back-up was not submitted and my buyers found themselves in highest-and-best multiple Offer situation. They DID win the bid and ultimately paid MORE than what they originally were willing to Offer in order to ‘win’ the bid and, ultimately, the home.

3. Back-up submitted and later won first position when the first buyers walked. There WERE others were waiting in line to Offer (being timid about submitting a back-up [‘Let us know if your buyer backs out and we’ll write that Offer’]).

So, I’ve definitely have seen that the time spent to submit that back-up Offers costs you, as a buyer FAR less than either losing out in a multiple Offer situation or paying more for the property in that same multiple Offer situation.

As a Charlotte home buyer who has fallen in love with a home that has just gone under Contract, if you have the time to wait a short period of time until the Due Diligence period ends, it is definitely a smart strategic move to present a back-up Offer on that dream home. Typically the Due Diligence period lasts between 21 and 28 days and if you’re not in a terrible hurry, you do have a chance of ‘winning’ the property.

Back-up Offers don’t always ‘pan-out’ so, it’s also wise to keep your eyes wide open for other properties that come on the market that fit your criteria. Don’t give up the search as back-ups aren’t often taken but, I feel like it’s better to try than to wind up losing out in a multiple Offer situation or paying more for the property than you would have if you had only presented that back-up Offer!