The spring market doesn’t officially start until, well, spring. But anyone who is shopping for a condo (or a house) in Toronto knows that the market is H-O-T right now, and multiple offers are not the exception, but the norm. Over the years of working with buyers and sellers in multiple offer situations, you learn a few tricks. If you are a buyer in a multiple offer situation, there are four sweet words you should love to hear:
“One came by fax”
Sending an offer by fax in a multiple offer situation is the real estate equivalent of ‘mailing it in’. The agent is essentially saying, my clients’ offer is not strong enough to stand a chance of actually being the winning offer, so I’m not going to waste my time by actually showing up for the offer presentation.
At the precise time of bidding, make sure you find out a) how many offers there are on the property and, b) how many are being presented in person vs. by fax/email. If you hear some or all of your competing buyers are submitting their offers by fax, consider your own offer carefully before submitting! You don’t want to be the offer that makes the seller’s say “One offer came in and blew us all away!” (Side note: Sellers-NEVER say this in front of a buyer or buyer’s agent). For example, if there are 3 offers, and you are the only one who shows up in person to present your offer, there is a good chance the other two offers are going to be weak ones, so consider your offer price accordingly. An in-person buyer is a much more motivated and serious buyer than one who is not present (as a general rule).
When I hear an offer was faxed in, I will automatically discount that offer when advising my buyer-clients on an appropriate ‘winning’ offer price. This is more relevant when in an offer situation with 2-4 offers, but it becomes less relevant when there are 5+ offers.
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