'Make' is a strong word.

A single buyer may have a strong preference for your home versus the home directly across the street for lots of incredibly personal reasons.A home in one neighborhood could be the same model from the same builder as another neighborhood.

My strong suit is working with people and budgeting and forecasting and running my business.

We are experiencing some slow down on the seller side (less homes being listed as we head into the Holidays) yet buyer demand is as strong as ever with all price points tracked under a week on the market.I have 8 flips going on right now and normally I am hesitant to do too much work in November and December because we end up listing in January and February.

but having set criteria will keep the ship afloat regardless of temporary hiccups. my hypothesis: Real estate will continue to go up in value in short term as well as the long term. there may be waves but that's why you built the strong ship to withstand them till the oceans are smooth again. 

What are some creative/strong ways to be competitive with offers in current seller’s market?

I loved her book Strong Father Strong Daughter.

But most likely, the market is extremely strong, and if this is a good area that people want to live in, then it will likely sell to a retail buyer who simply wants to get into the neighborhood and have another tenant offset his costs, but ultimately is not looking at it as an investment.

@Fili Aguirre No one applicant is perfect, one has to give points to a strong rental history, with the mid-range credit score with a middling LL recommendation, against the applicant with low credit score (bad decisions a few years ago) but who now has a solid employer but who's missed a car payment.

I was given the advice many years ago when I got into rentals to just hang tight and see what happens....fast forward 10yrs and they are still kicking strong.....my 2 cents