YES it is possible! Multiple offers after 200+ days on market
Now that MLS search sites are providing more and more information, consumers are really trying to use the “days on market” to their advantage when searching for homes and determining an offer price. Old wisdom was that if a home had been on the market a long time, there must be something wrong with it! Of course, if no one else wanted to buy it, why should you? Now that there are more and more bank owned homes on the market, buyers are actually searching for those homes that have been on the market a long time, hoping that they will be able to get the best deal on something that’s been for sale forever – searching for desperate sellers.
The important thing to keep in mind when searching for homes, is that often the number of days on the market does not tell the whole story. Just because a home has been listed for 200+ days, does not mean that a buyer should be able to go in with a low ball offer and purchase the home from a “desperate” seller. In every case, it is necessary for your agent to dig a little deeper! One of the things I absolutely love about my job is the research aspect…what can I find out if I do a little poking around? Most of the helpful information is actually public information – when was the home last sold? what was the sale price? can we determine anything about the loan the previous borrowers had? has there been a death? a divorce? All of these things can help determine the financial position of the seller.
Another great tool in the MLS is actually the property history feature…has the home been listed before? when did they have price drops? have there been any previous contracts? changes in the remarks? Many times what I am seeing with bank-owned homes is that they have recently dropped the price (to where it should have been in the first place!) and therefore generated a lot of new interest on a property. These are all cases where it is important to know the history before submitting an offer. And if the listing agent is telling you there are multiple offers, there is a good chance it is true. A huge price drop can bring a lot of buyers off the fence!
Another area where days on the market can be misleading is with new construction. I served as the listing broker for several new construction homes last year, many that were listed just as construction started. Once the home was complete, we dropped the price to reflect current builder incentives that were being offered, and voila! 148 days after listing we received 5 offers over a weekend. The house actually sold for over asking price.
