Getting outbid on a home can be disappointing, but there are ways to make sure your offer is competitive and more acceptable to sellers. Being aware of what you can afford and what you are willing to pay is a good first step, but there are many other ways to ensure a successful offer.

Key Takeaways
• Don’t give up if you’re outbid on a home. It can happen to anyone, in any market
• Present a strong offer, with a pre-qualification letter to gain the confidence of the seller
• Work with sellers to negotiate items like closing costs and inspection periods and timing
• Adding an escalation clause can help prevent being outbid by incremental offers from competing buyers

Videos are for informational purposes only and represent the opinions of the speakers. Chase does not warrant the completeness, timeliness or accuracy of the content.

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Ryan: Anyone can get outbid when making an offer on a house – there are a lot of multiple offer situations, and people have to… outbid one another – it’s preparing yourself emotionally for that, don’t get too invested into a home until you have a signed contract.

Mandy: Well we started the home buying process quite a ways in advance, I’d say we started… August I think? And we closed on this particular house in February. So this wasn’t our initial house that we put an offer for.

Pat: The biggest thing we’re seeing right now is their parents or some people that remember what was a long time ago — trying to remember what was has nothing to do with the market today. If they don’t offer their very best foot from the beginning, which is what they really should do if you love the house, pay for it. Be done with it and buy it.

Ryan: Maybe based on what type of loan somebody is getting versus FHA or a conventional loan, or even if somebody came in and was paying in cash; these are all realistic things that somebody is gonna have to compete with when they’re making a bid, it goes more than just price.

Marie: We knew we wanted this, put in our offer, we went back and forth a couple times, got em down a little bit.

Ryan: There’s some different contingencies that can be put into a contract that can try to help, you know, get your bid ahead of some other people, such as escalation clauses, saying we’ll do a price up to this and — thousand, five hundred dollars over any competing offer up to a certain point. You’d hate to lose a house over a hundred dollars or a thousand dollars on the offer.

Mandy: Search out many homes. Just because you see one that you think is the home, does not mean that there isn’t a home out there that’s better.

Ryan: I think the best way to come in to present a strong offer definitely is to be pre-qualified and have that strong letter that comes in from a notable lender, and they’ve reviewed your file, they’ve looked at bank statements, they’ve verified employment, all of these things makes your offer look that much stronger because they know you’ve already gone through that, and it’s not just a surprise when something comes up later when you’ve already gone into a contract. They can help to make a seller feel more secure with your offer.
Pat: Shorten your periods of time for your inspection. I’ll pay them a couple thousand dollars more so they will pay my closing costs, just trying to work with them as a partner, rather than a buyer and seller and they don’t speak and work with each other.

Ryan: After you’ve been outbid it’s an unfortunate thing, it can feel like the end of the world when you’re in your home search, however, there’s always another opportunity to go out there and find another home.

Mandy: Don’t automatically think that you’re gonna get the house just because you put it an offer.

Marie: Don’t get your hopes hung up on that one home, there’s always gonna be another one out there that you’ll fall in love with.