I want to share with you a question I have been hearing from my clients the last couple of weeks – “Should I accept my first offer Georges?”
In the first scenario it was Despina who advised me that she had received an offer on her property whilst her property was not for sale – in other words it was off market. Her big dilemma was whether she should accept that offer.
In the second scenario, Bob was on the market for four weeks and received an offer at full asking price. Should he accept that offer?

Property off-market
In Despina’s case where the property was not on the market and the buyer made an offer on the property where the vendor was not expecting it, there are three questions you should ask yourself:

1. Is the offer received a market value offer?
2. Is this the highest possible offer that you can receive for the property based upon market expectations?
3. How do you know this is the best offer?

Here at London Executive we are very passionate about making sure that your property is exposed to the widest market possible with the best marketing. To achieve this we use a variety of mediums such as our bespoke marketing brochure, exposure to our online portals like rightmove, zoopla and primelocation focusing on click through rates, rotation of main pictures, virtual reality tours as well as copy write, our Keller Williams worldwide network of agents and finally social media.

When you expose the property using the above marketing techniques, one thing is for sure – you have exposed the property to the widest possible market and the buyer that is ready, willing and able to make that offer, will be making the best offer possible.

When your property is off market, no one knows about it. The real question is what are you most concerned about – that no one finds out about the property being on the market or that you achieve the highest price possible.

Property on the market
In Bob’s case, where he had received a full asking price after four weeks on the market is slightly different because it is all about where you are on the marketing journey.

The biggest demand that a property can receive is in the first three to five weeks. These first five weeks are crucial to gage the interest of the property based upon pricing as long as the marketing is outstanding. If a full asking price offer is received at the beginning of this period and you can wait, there is a very high probability that a second and maybe a third offer can come and match the first offer and create competitive bidding. If on the other hand, the first offer comes in at week 10 of your marketing, then there is a very high chance that this could be the best and only offer you could get.

In Bob’s case, I advised him to wait as we were in week 4 of our marketing, and to his surprise we received two further offers at full asking price. An experienced agent must bring his value to the table when it comes to negotiating the best possible price under the best possible terms. We managed to raise all three offers by simply asking all of our buyers “How much are you willing not to pay so you lose this property?” By asking this simple question, we were able to understand the motivation of all of our buyers. There will always be one buyer that is willing to pay a little more than the rest to secure that property. To our client’s amazement, we achieved 6% above the asking price.

I hope that these two different scenarios of Despina and Bob (where one property was off the market and another was on the market) have helped you to decide whether you should be accepting your first offer.

Just remember the following three key points:
1. Expose your property to the widest possible market
2. Look at your journey with your agent’s marketing strategy
3. Review your buyer’s or tenant’s offer requirements and choose the best one.

If you do have a challenge whether you should accept your first offer, just drop me an email at georges@london-executive.com and I will be in touch.