Multi-Offers & FNMA

[Marc Caraballo]

Kind of a 2-part question, but both are concerning what I've been running up against lately while putting in offers (more-so than usual it seems).

1. Why would every offer I put it trigger a multi-offer scenario? Now, I realize the obvious answer "because there's more than one offer", but it seems within the last 2-3 months, it doesn't matter if the property has been on the MLS for 3 days or 3 months, as soon as I put in an offer I get a response stating that it's a multi-bid... Am I missing a condition or shift in the marketplace where I keep running into these (by the way, I have not been successful in even one of these, and I'm not putting in garbage offers)? Am I on the outside of a "secret-circle" of knowledge?

2. Do FNMA/HomePath bids get countered? Again, realizing that the answer is inevitably "yes", I have indeed had 1 countered this month, but more times than not, I have been 6-10% within their list price, and get a straight rejection. I even had a situation where I was within $4500 of the list and still got no counter (after being rejected 3 times). Even though I was so close to list, I didn't want to break my own rules/numbers, and quit offering. 30-days later (lack of tracking on my part), the list price was reduced, below my latest offer, and was sold within the day. Again, what am I missing here?

Thanks in advance for your insight & feedback.