How to Win an Offer in a Hot Market

Let's face it, people are interested in real estate investing right now!

Whether it's househacking a duplex, buying single or multi family rentals, apartments, condos or mobile home parks, real estate investing is hot. Through tools like Biggerpockets, podcasts, books, seminars and meetups more and more people are getting into real estate investing.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing! What it does mean is that there is more competition and to get an offer accepted you need to come prepared.

I'm going to quickly list a few things you can do to win an offer in hot market, which from what I understand, is most markets in the United States.

• Have your financing lined up and use a lender with an automated preapproval system. If you see a property on Saturday and want to put an offer in you need to get it done now, not Monday afternoon.
• Use a lender that understands real estate investing and who is willing to vouch for you to the listing agent. One of the first things I do as a listing agent when receiving an offer for a property I have listed is call the lender. I want  to know that the buyer has a strong financial history and that I'm not going to run into issues with financing because they decided to go and buy a new car a week before closing.
• Write a cover letter and attach it to your offer! If you're using a savvy agent they may already have you doing this but I can't stress how helpful this can be. A cover letter personalizes the offer and makes you a human, not just numbers on a paper. Be sure this is presented before the offer, so they have to see it.
• Have a short inspection contingency or none at all. I always recommend doing a home inspection for newer buyers but if you can get this done in 5 or 7 days it looks a lot more attractive. As an agent I work with several different inspectors to make sure we can get it done in as little  as 2 or 3 days.
• Make your best offer but don't overbid and plan to renegotiate later on just because you think you can. If you find something you had no idea about in the inspection I'll forgive it but if you know the house needs $30k worth of rehab just by looking at it don't come back later and tell me you just figured it out. This is a great way to lose a place, there are generally plenty of other willing buyers.

I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to win an offer. Everything I've outlined here is ethical and won't irritate the seller or other Realtor. Remember that real estate is a relationship business and if you make a bad name for yourself building a portfolio will be difficult!