How to handle multiple offers on your property
Several offers at once is the best position a seller can be in, and it is easily wasted by treating the highest number as the answer.
Multiple offers are the point at which a competitive process pays off, and they are also the point at which sellers most often make an expensive mistake by accepting the highest figure without examining the buyer behind it.
The comparison is between packages, not prices. Each offer is a price plus a probability of completion, and the probability matters as much as the price.
What to compare
Ask the agent to establish the same facts for every offer, so the comparison is like for like.
- The price, and whether it is subject to anything
- The buyer's chain, and how far along their own sale is
- Whether a mortgage is agreed in principle, and with whom
- The deposit, and whether it can be evidenced
- Whether a solicitor has been instructed
- The buyer's ideal timescale, and whether it matches yours
- Whether the buyer is likely to renegotiate after the survey
Running best and final offers
Where several buyers are interested and the offers are close, a best-and-final process concentrates the decision. The agent tells every interested party that offers are being considered on a set date and invites their best offer.
The process works because it forces commitment. It fails if the deadline moves, because that signals the competition is weaker than claimed and the offers fall. If the best-and-final round produces nothing better, the honest conclusion is that the price expectation was too high.
Choosing the buyer
The buyer who will complete is worth a premium, and it is worth quantifying. A fall-through costs the marketing period, the momentum, and frequently a few per cent of the eventual price, because a property that has been under offer and returned to the market is read as one with a problem.
That means an offer 2% or 3% lower from a chain-free buyer with funding in place can be the better choice. It is not certain, but the odds are better, and the decision should be made on the odds.
Common questions
- Should I accept the highest offer on my house?
- Not automatically. An offer is a price plus a probability of completion, and a higher offer from a buyer in a long chain with no mortgage agreed may never complete. Weigh the offer against the buyer's ability to proceed, and be prepared to accept slightly less from a buyer who is genuinely ready.
- How do I handle multiple offers on my property?
- Establish the same facts for every offer — chain, mortgage status, deposit, solicitor, timescale — and compare them as packages rather than as numbers. Where several are close, a best-and-final process concentrates the decision, provided the deadline does not move. Then choose on the odds of completion, not on the highest figure.