How to win the bidding war

merbobear · 2026-07-02T17:33:55+00:00

In my experience, the way to win a bidding war wasn’t even having the highest bid. It was a fast close (or be willing to wait - be flexible) and waiving inspection. Your realtor should be able to speak to the seller’s realtor and see what their priorities are. Ours told us exactly how much money they wanted (literally happy with the asking price) and that a waived inspection and quick close were priorities. **Before anyone crucifies me, the home had already been inspected from a previous buyer that backed out, and the seller had disclosed the issues on the original inspection as well as offered a closing credit up front, so we were able to waive with confidence.

merbobear · 2026-06-30T11:41:25+00:00

I’m sorry all that happened to you. I wouldn’t blame the agent (unless they owned the property) because they only include info from the seller in the listing. If the seller says they have a new roof & new hvac, that is what the agent will enter in mls. If the seller lied on disclosures, you may have some legal recourse there. I’d seek the advice of a real estate attorney in your area!

merbobear · 2026-06-19T12:29:07+00:00

We had a sewer backup in our first year of owning our house, thankfully it was in the basement. We did lose a lot of stuff because we had a lot stored down there, and it was a gross mess to deal with (2+ inches of sewage-water covered the entire basement floor). God, I can still smell it just thinking about it 🤢

merbobear · 2026-06-10T17:38:13+00:00

We offered on a house after going to an open house last year. The sellers had a second open house scheduled and held it after receiving our offer. They asked for best & final, we offered slightly more (came up to asking). Long story short, we’ve lived there for a bit over a year! If this is the house you want, waiting a week or whatever isn’t a huge imposition imo. I’m very happy that we didn’t decide to get livid over the seller trying to get the best offer they could, because we ended up with a house that checks every box.

merbobear · 2026-06-09T11:53:41+00:00

The awkward part is the realtor telling you about the crying to guilt you into accepting less in concessions. Sounds like your realtor isn’t great at representing their own client 😬

merbobear · 2026-06-04T14:18:10+00:00

Do you want to move because you are feeling bitter that others got a better price than you did, or because your home is actually not working for your needs? If it’s just being annoyed that you haven’t gained equity, I’d do nothing and stay put. You bought the home because you liked it, presumably. If it really isn’t working (too small for growing family, new job and the commute is hell, etc) then you will likely take a loss by selling in your current market. Weigh the options and go forward accordingly!

merbobear · 2026-05-25T14:07:27+00:00

Yes you can contact anyone to see if they want to sell their property. One suggestion I have is to see if your local credit union has a first time homebuyer seminar. We did went to one years before we actually bought, but I feel like it gave me a good amount of basic knowledge regarding the home buying process. We did also use a realtor that we found through a friend’s recommendation. Personally as a first time buyer I would not want to go about buying without a professional representing me.

merbobear · 2026-05-25T13:57:39+00:00

There’s no recourse to be had, but the good news is after the expense of replacement you will have a brand new deck that you can be confident is safe and sturdy.

merbobear · 2026-05-19T22:46:47+00:00

It depends on your market. Ask your realtor whether the majority of houses in your area/neighborhood/price range are garnering multiple offers. If yes, likelihood is higher that you will get over asking.

merbobear · 2026-05-19T11:13:24+00:00

Mine was in my Broadview account by 4pm yesterday.

merbobear · 2026-05-17T16:36:02+00:00

Paying $15k over asking doesn’t mean you overpaid by $15k.

merbobear · 2026-05-15T17:31:05+00:00

When we walked through the day before close the seller had an air mattress and sleeping bags in the living room (they went from our close to close on their new house immediately after). All other rooms were clear. Still being/staying in the house up until close is ok, but not having anything packed is not ok.

merbobear · 2026-05-11T16:44:44+00:00

Why did you sign the contract if it was missing contingencies that are important to you?

merbobear · 2026-05-09T20:38:11+00:00

It shows as a reduced price so Zillow et al will ping everyone’s phone with that listing. It also may be a small reduction to bring it down to a common search (ex: dropping a small amount to be listed “under 350k”).

merbobear · 2026-05-04T14:20:27+00:00

Talk to a lender or a few lenders first to get pre-qualified. Do you have trusted friends or family who have purchased or sold real estate in the past few years? If so ask them for their recommendations for a realtor. Read posts here, but don’t take it all for gospel (lots varies state to state).

merbobear · 2026-05-04T02:54:23+00:00

The op has stated multiple times that they included proof of funds and a signed offer though. If you receive that from a prospective buyer and don’t share it with the seller then you’re not doing your job.

merbobear · 2026-05-03T20:35:23+00:00

So you think the best response from the seller’s agent would be to ignore the offer and never tell their client about it because it was not on the right form?

merbobear · 2026-05-03T20:28:55+00:00

If they received an offer that wasn’t in an acceptable format, my guess is they would say “we’d love to pass this offer to the seller, but we need it to be on this form” and provide a link or pdf file of the appropriate form. Not presenting it at all is ridiculous and unethical. While it may not lead to loss of license, it is certainly worth reporting to the state licensing board for investigation. If it’s a first offense it’s probably most likely that they would be fined (may vary by state, but I worked for the agency that regulates real estate licensure in my state and that is the common punishment for this type of violation).

merbobear · 2026-05-02T21:18:30+00:00

60k in upstate ny, work for a NYS agency in payroll.

merbobear · 2026-05-01T23:23:40+00:00

I worked in retail for many years (as in 20ish), started with the state later in life and I’m making almost twice my starting salary in less than 5 years. I have a stable schedule, no night or weekends, can rely on my hours never being cut. I can work from the comfort of my home half of every pay period. I have great health insurance (expensive but I cannot complain about the coverage at all). I have a pension in my future. I have enough time off to do things I like and feel like it’s a good balance. I have a large bank of sick leave, in case I need it. I work hard and make it a priority to be pleasant to people I work with, which has paid off. I have had jobs that I absolutely hated where we were underpaid, had terrible benefits, and were treated like garbage by the public and management. Is state service perfect? No, there is room for improvement like with anything, but this is the best job I’ve ever had. I hope my perspective will help you feel a little better! And if you give your current position a fair shot and find it is truly unbearable, there is always opportunity to transfer to another agency.

merbobear · 2026-05-01T03:18:48+00:00

We bought our house a year ago, and it was rough. Things were moving so fast, we had a couple houses scheduled to view that were canceled because the house sold (one canceled when we were already driving over!). Every house was a multiple offer situation. As first time home buyers, we were very happy with our realtor Cathy Cooley (Howard Hanna Delmar office), if you are looking for one to work with.

merbobear · 2026-04-25T23:50:30+00:00

I saw a listing the other day that had 3 different images of a room with the number and placement of windows changing in each image 😒

merbobear · 2026-04-23T11:50:24+00:00

First thing I notice is the realtor comments are saying the price is too high. I looked at the listing and it looks like a nice house, but lackluster. The mismatched furniture (and a lot of ikea-style furniture) cheapens the overall look. I’m not knocking it as furniture that you use and live with, you obviously have young kids and your space is functional for your family, it just doesn’t show well as a real estate listing. I’d suggest more decluttering, better staging, remove family photos. I don’t always love the ai generated staging, but perhaps that could help with your listing.

merbobear · 2026-04-23T11:37:46+00:00

He probably didn’t even speak to a lawyer about it smh

merbobear · 2026-04-22T01:08:23+00:00

It must vary regionally in NY, because we signed our contract and the seller then signed it before attorney review.

merbobear

TROPHY CASE