One of the worst things that can happen during the home buying process is to finally find your dream home, only to discover that someone else is already bidding on it. When this happens, how can you win your dream house without losing your shirt in the process? In this article, we'll cover some of the more important points to winning a multiple offer property in [Profile.market2].

Tip #1 - Know Your Limit

It is tempting to increase your bid based on emotions during a bid war.  Buyers are often willing to pay more out of competitiveness, feeling that something they want is being taken away or just plain rationalization.

This trap can cost you thousands of dollars.  Instead, do your comparative analysis of the properties nearby, choose the highest number youíre willing to pay for this property and stick to it.  Depending on the particular market conditions, buyers market or sellers market, you'll need to factor this in when determining what you will pay for a property.  In a sellers market, prices are on the increase so bidding is usually a fact of life.  Whereas in a sellers market, bidding is seldom seen and when bidding occurs, the property is probably priced under the market value or have some significant features that warrant a premium price.

Tip #2 - Have a Real Estate Agent That is Looking Out for You

Remember that real estate agents are paid based on the selling price.  There are agents that will look out for you and have your best interest in mind, while other agents would rather increase their commissions by convincing you to place a higher bid.  My philosophy is that I work for my clients and in there best interest.  It does me no good to try to run up the price when it doesn't adhere to the interests of my clients.

It is important to have a real estate agent you can really trust during the process.

Tip #3 - Make an Impression on the Seller

Be more than just Buyer #2.  A good realtor will know based on discussions with you whether this is the perfect house for you.  The realtor will then have a face to face meeting with either the sellers realtor or the actual seller to present the offer and express your feelings about the home.  They usually love their house as well and want to sell to someone who'll love it just as much.  Just seeing a contract doesn't express the feelings behind the contract.  By having the seller know who you are, they may agree to take a lower bid because they can relate to you.

Tip #4 - Remove Conditions

The less conditions you have on your contract, the better.  Call up your loan officer and make sure you can get approved for the loan and remove the financing contingency.  The cleaner your contract,  the more appealing it will be for the seller.  By requesting money back for closing costs can work against you in a multiple bid situation.  In addition, by requesting items to be fixed or replaced is also a negative.  Using an AS IS contract will let the seller know that you really want the house and will take it with all its imperfections.  I would not remove the inspection contingency though as this could be your life saver is the home should have any structural defects.

These four tips will help you bid on a property in [Profile.market2] without losing your shirt.  Keep them in mind if you find yourself in a multiple offer situation.

There is a lot of free information available to you about buying, selling or investing in [Profile.market2] real estate.  For complete information about the [Profile.market2] real estate market including current homes for sale, property values and more please visit the most complete website online dedicated to everything Cape Coral real estate at www.livingincapecoralnow.com or www.dancraddock.com.  So please feel free to contact me with any of your real estate related questions and I will be more than willing to answer your questions. Call me on my cell at [Profile.cell_phone] or email me at [Profile.email_link].