I'm not.

There are many!

Right now, it's the nature of the beast, as they say. You won't win them all, but you do need to strategize with your buyers on price and terms when making offers in a multiple offer situation.

I guess we would if the buyers would just be honest with us, commit to working with one agent and not play their dishonest games.

This has been our market for over a year.  You have to be there when the doors open, make your best offer and have a lender who is willing to reach out to the listing agent.  And then sometimes you don't get it. 

You bet!

Options are, wait until your buyer sees three of their dream homes bought by someone else then they will get SERIOUS.

Then you take the pre-emptive measures to get your SERIOUS buyer to the front of the line. That is when you must connect with area FIRST LOOK agents. Serious buyers ONLY!

Be aware, 'over-bid' is a meaningless term. It suggests an offer over list price which, as you know, list price is about STRATEGY, not about what the house will sell for. That is the FIRST thing you need to teach the buyer. "This $250,000 house in a $350,000 community is not going to sell for $250,000. Can you go as high as $350,000?"

When the buyer is SERIOUS, and committed to you, that is when you go and create the inventory they want. They must be buyers, not shoppers. 

Actually it is for this purpose I started doing the MIAM reports you see on my blog. I can spot the communities with 'First Look' opportunities. But, you will need to be a master at creating the right copy for your message.

I find the key is to get into a new listing right away, make the best offer and keep the contract clean.  

I am sure things will improve as more sellers will list their homes in April.

I am winning only because I am doing the extra little things.  Are you calling and telling the agent how good they are.  Are you sending that client letter telling how much they love the house and who they are

Yes, inventory is getting lower and lower and multiple offers is a regular occurance in Dayton, OH area!!!

Wow!  That is kind of a good problem to have as far as the over abundance of buyers. Send some my way and I'll pay you a referral - this can be a win win!  We have the opposite here - prices rising and less buyers.  I just have homes that are priced higher and can't get buyers for them.  Hopefully it will work out for both of us before too long!

Hi Kristen - in many areas of my market, it's still an extreme sellers' market and buyers need to accept the reality of the situation and understand what it may take to purchase.  

That said, in any market, there are always homes that simply don't sell for a number of reasons -- it may be time to revisit some of those who have been "around" longer than "normal".   

Yes.  We're seeing that come up over and over in South Florida lately.  It's happening in both residential and commercial properties.  Our local market has turned the corner and is now a seller's market with plenty of buyers!  It's a great situation for sellers ... but often frustrating for those working with the many buyers competing for the same property.  We expect things to change somewhat as our "season" ends and the dollar gains strength against many currencies (foreign buyers are a large part of our market). 

 Good morning Kristin. We are experiencing a similar situation here in our area. To many buyers and not enough properties.

We have only had a few instances of that so far but my California agent-friends are very familiar with the phenomenon.

Sounds like 2005 all over again. I haven't had the problem yet!

Kristin Hamilton CA Realtor - well, this is a problem in many towns. However, try using some of the tricks we use - a letter from buyer (some posts mentioned that it is not desirable), find out from listing agent what terms and conditions are good for the seller, build relations with the listing agents.

And of course, I am sure you'll get some more suggestions, soon.

DFW is going through this right now. As an inspector, I deal with a lot of different agents and the common theme seems to be educating your clients. You have to explain to them that the market is very competitive right now, so they need to identify exactly what they want and target those houses that meet their criteria. This is not the time to window shop houses that are out of budget. They need to be able to make a decision to make an offer quickly, expect to have the offer be over asking price, and expect to get very few concessions from the seller.

I have buyers at inspections tell me that they don't care about the minor issues, they just want to make sure the roof and foundation are ok. They aren't going to ask the seller to fix anything because they don't want to kill the deal over little negotiation points. Very different than it was a few years ago when you could tell the seller that you didn't like their wallpaper and they would take it down.

Wow, great question.  In our area, SE Wisconsin, we have not reached a level of an overabundance of buyers.  We are, however, still dealing with a lack of inventory.