Monday, April 25, 2005

"Highest and Best"

"Pop quiz, hotshot. How much do you want this house?"

Highest and Best. That's the rules of the game for our bid on the house we want. All offers will go through the listing agent for presentation tomorrow afternoon and the seller will pick the "highest and best" of them, with no counter-offers being made. "Highest" is self-explanatory; "best" represents the variables like mortgage status, closing date, etc., potential tie-breakers in case of equal "highest" offers. We're good on that side of the equation, now we have to figure out the other side without getting ripped off.

Fucking seller's market! The house was just listed last Tuesday!!! With 13 of the 16 houses that have closed in Bloomfield in our price range since last November selling at or above asking price, in some cases well above asking, it's an all-in or fold kind of hand to play.

We were originally going to just round up our bid to an even number, offering $1,000 more than their asking price, but now we're trying to figure out if we should go higher and if so, how much higher. Because it's such a great deal, losing this house would push Plan B back to the front, but because it's such a great deal, it's quite likely the other bidder(s) are having the same debate. Assuming, of course, there really are other bidders and we're not simply being played!

Why can't eBay get into real estate?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So your back??? And yes, you certainly did sneak back in. Homebuying is fun isn't it? Yeah, kind of like acupuncture. We just recently went through this and still no house. I wish you luck. Hang in there.

Khola'

Rachel G said...

Goood job