When Should You Host Offer Night?

Business

6 minute read

May 11, 2015

Well, let’s see.  There are seven days in a week, so you have a 1/7 shot of picking the best day, right?

Believe it or not, it isn’t that simple.  Many people think that selling real estate in Toronto is simply listing it, holding an offer night, and getting somebody to sign on the dotted line.

In reality, the day and time you choose to hold offers can make or break your listing, and I’m seeing a LOT of mistakes out there.  Let’s examine…

MutlipleOffers

“Any day that ends in ‘y’ will work just fine.”

That’s what a potential seller told me late last year when I met with him and his wife to discuss the sale of their house.

He traveled a lot for work, and he wanted us to have a “flexible” offer date, by his accounts.  His idea was to list the house for sale according to schedule, but be able to change the offer date depending on how his work week was going.

“If we’re ready to rock and roll for Thursday but I get called away, we can just move it up to Monday and that’ll do just fine,” he told me.

He really felt that the day and time of offers didn’t’ matter, and could be changed, swapped, or substituted with no notice.

I couldn’t have possibly disagreed more.

I think most of you would agree that changing an offer date isn’t a good idea, and can’t be done on a whim.

But even the notion of the actual day and time not mattering was something I disagree with as well.

Real estate is a 24/7, 365 business, but there are hot and cold pockets, and it can be a cyclical business.

For example, even when it comes to when to list a property for sale, I have my favourites.  I don’t list on Fridays, since many Realtors aren’t working (what a life eh?), and many buyers aren’t paying as close attention.  I also don’t list on Mondays, since that’s when most brokerages have their weekly meetings, and people playing catch-up from the weekend aren’t ready for the week ahead.

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are the days for me, but even still, I’d say 80% of the time, I choose Tuesday.  Simply put, that’s the day.

When it comes to “when to review offers,” you need to examine it on a micro basis as well.

Let’s look at the following examples and examine:

Reviewing Offers On A Weeknight

In my mind, this is the only time to do it.

People work.  Period.

People work, generally 9-5, but in Toronto they work even more.  The 40-hour work week has become a thing of the past in our city, and it means that evenings and weekends aren’t always “time off.”

So it’s become even more important to review offers after 7pm on a weekday.

When I list a property for sale, my job is to maximize the sale price of that home, and I do so by maximizing everything about the property and the process, whether it’s staging, marketing, timing, or even the offer date.

So why would I hold offers at midnight on the moon?

Holding offers after work gives the buyers time, but it also gives them calm.  It allows them to go about their day in their normal course of business, with the anxiety that comes with knowing they’re about to win or lose the house of their dreams, but without any additional stress.  Had these buyers needed to take the day off work to submit an offer mid-day, perhaps they’d be less likely to go “all in,” or to submit an offer to begin with.

As a listing agent, you need to make it as easy as possible for buyers to submit offers.  It’s why I hold offers at my office, and not at the property – which we’ll talk about later on.  So by having offers at 7pm, on a weeknight, you’re providing the path of least resistance.

Reviewing Offers On A Weekday, ie. 1:00pm

This is a mistake, in my mind.

As I explained above, people work during the day.

The attitude that some sellers have is, “Well, if they really want the house, then they’ll make the day and time work for them.”

But is that really the best way to do things?

People have this belief that “a house will sell itself,” but it won’t; not for top dollar, at least.

If you’re a kid selling lemonade, you set up a stand on the sidewalk where people walk by.  You don’t set up a stand in your backyard, and draw a giant arrow leading down the driveway.

You might suggest, “If somebody is going to make a $1,000,000 decision, that will impact them every day for the next twenty years, do you really think they’ll opt out of the process because offers are at 1:00pm instead of 7:00pm.”

My answer?  “Do you really want to find out?”

As I said above, provide the path of least resistance, and don’t fight it.

Let’s say that one buyer offers at 1pm, and then he heads into a meeting at work.  His offer is tied with another offer, but his buyer agent can’t get ahold of him!  The listing agent can’t wait any longer, so he works with another offer.  Maybe, just maybe, the buyer stuck in a work meeting would have come up BIG in price!

Maybe, maybe not.  But why take that chance?

The only time that I find 1:00pm offer dates to be acceptable is when the house being sold is a power of sale, or an estate, and the lawyer is reviewing offers and needs 72 hours.  At that point, it doesn’t matter when offers are submitted.

Reviewing Offers On A Weekend

This is insane.

There are enough days during the week that you simply don’t need to review offers on Saturday night, or Sunday afternoon.

Sometimes it’s a cultural thing.  It’s beyond coincidence at this point.

But either way, I don’t understand what a seller, or the seller’s agent, is thinking when they decide to hold offers on a Saturday night.  It’s not automatic that a buyer would skip that wedding, work party, birthday, or other event to make an offer on a house.  And if you lose even one buyer, you lose money on your sale.  No question about it.

Why mess with what works?

Offers on weeknights.  End of story.

Who the hell reviews offers at 3:30pm on Sunday?

Reviewing Offers On A Holiday Or Special Occasion

3:30pm on Sunday?  That’s bad.

But 3:30pm on Sunday that happens to be Mother’s Day is absolutely ludicrous.

As I write this blog – it’s Sunday night, and I saw my mother and my family for brunch today, and just got home from my mother-in-law’s where we had a family dinner.

I have to wonder how offers went for that east-side house that was reviewing offers at 5pm today.  I just can’t imagine, nor do I care to understand.

As for actual holidays, it’s amazing to think that people hold offers when they ought to know part of the market isn’t going to partake.

While we wouldn’t hold offers on Christmas morning around 11:00am, I find it interesting that many listings have offers on Passover, which usually falls on a weeknight.  In fact, Passover is two nights, and it basically means that every Jewish person in Toronto is unavailable to make offers on houses.

That’s just one religion, but we’re in a very multi-cultural city, and it pays to keep track of holidays and special occasions.

In my office, we’ll bring this subject up at our Monday morning meetings.  Our manager will remind people, “Thursday and Friday is Passover, so do NOT hold offers on those nights!”

Maybe it depends on who you are, where you live, and what you see and do out there, but between Easter & Passover, it’s odd to see offers being held on those days, and it’s bound to cost the sellers money.

Where To Review Offers?

At the listing brokerage.  100%.

I never understand why listing agents review offers at the house.

The office has plenty of parking, and it encourages buyer agents to bring their clients.

The office has a waiting room, where buyer agents can sit and stare at each other, while second-guessing themselves, and this often results in agents having their clients increase their offers.

In fact, sometimes one agent will see another agent, and figure, “Oh geez, so-and-so is here.  She’s good.  She’s really good!  Her offer must be amazing.  Okay, well, if I’m going to compete against so-and-so, then my offer has to be better.”

The office has a fax machine, a printer, a scanner, and access to email.  So if a buyer agent needs to make an improvement or adjustment to his or her offer, then technology is right there and available!  You don’t get that in your car, sitting out front of the seller’s house.

Moving The Offer Date

This is the final discussion point, and it comes up very infrequently, but it needs to be on your radar.

You can’t control the inventory available, and you’re at the mercy of the market when it comes to the level of competition you’ll face when you list a property.

So if you bring out your shiny, new listing on Tuesday, looking to review offers next Monday, and alas – three other, similar houses are listed the same day, also reviewing offers next Monday, then suffice it to say, you and the three other listings are going to split the buyer pool.

It might make sense to move your offer date back a day, so you don’t compete, but also to pick up on all those sad buyers who lost out the day before.

If you’re going to move the offer date, it has to be within 24 hours of the listing coming out, otherwise you run the risk of confusing buyers, or allowing them to move merrily along for days before the check the listing to see the offer date has been moved.  You simply can’t take that chance.

Picking an offer day, date, time, place, and having that “Plan-B” are crucial in today’s market if you’re selling a sought-after single-family home.

As with anything in real estate, there’s a bad way, good way, better way, best way, and the way that makes other people wonder what the hell you’re doing…

Written By David Fleming

David Fleming is the author of Toronto Realty Blog, founded in 2007. He combined his passion for writing and real estate to create a space for honest information and two-way communication in a complex and dynamic market. David is a licensed Broker and the Broker of Record for Bosley – Toronto Realty Group

Find Out More About David Read More Posts

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published.

10 Comments

  1. Mike

    at 8:07 am

    Questions:

    In previous posts you’ve talked about your hatred of bully offers and when agents move up offer dates, to the point where you’ve described the practice as seeming “unfair”. Two posts ago you had an entertaining video where you wanted to buy a tube of toothpaste but had to wait a week before you could submit your offer only to find out that the day that you thought was the date for an offer had been moved because circumstances had changed. You found it strange that you couldn’t buy the toothpaste at the asking price at the time it was offered. In your last post you talked about the emotions of selling your house. In recognising that selling your house is very emotional you probably recognise that buying is also a highly emotional decision and process.

    Does this post not fly in the face of your previous posts? If you are putting that much thought into what night into what night to receive offers to receive a maximum sales price, is it not prudent for the buyers agent to put that kind of thought into how to maximize the success of his/her purchaser’s bid? If you ask that offers are withheld until a specific day are you not courting the market for a “bully bid”?

    I understand you like to use this blog as a real estate education resource and as such need to present both sides of issues effecting a transaction.

    1. David Fleming

      at 12:49 pm

      @ Mike

      I’m not sure what you’re asking.

      Are you asking – why do I play both sides?

      I can’t change this industry by myself. I will go on record saying that I don’t like the “under-pricing” and “hold backs” on offers, but I will do exactly that for my sellers because that’s the way it is, the way it’s always been, and the best way to work for my sellers.

      If I were to take stand and say, “From now on, I’m only pricing at fair market value, offers any time,” then not only would I be doing my sellers a disservice, since they can get more money by doing the price-low, hold-back, but I also wouldn’t get any business because they’d hire somebody else.

      I’m shining a light on tactics in the industry, which is more than any other licensed Realtor will do. But I can’t change it on my own, nor will a one-man stand do anything.

      A newspaper reporter saw my “Toothpaste” video, and was shocked to hear that I listed 12 Wiltshire Avenue at $399,900 and sold it for $511,000. She said, “Doesn’t that make you a hypocrite?”

      In theory, sure.

      But in reality, I’m playing by the rules as they exist, and working according to the industry standard. I can say that I don’t like the industry standard, and advocate for change, but I can’t enact that change on my own.

  2. Libertarian

    at 11:51 am

    I’m not sure whether David will answer, but he has written before that he does not accept bully offers. He wants there to be more structure in the industry, so the industry should establish some sort of standard of how to sell a house. Once the rules of the game are established, then everyone can play.

    The fact that it is the wild west out there makes it difficult for buyers and sellers, which causes an inefficient market.

  3. Kevin

    at 11:06 pm

    Reality in part is that buyers, sellers and agents representing them cut every advantage they can. If under listed homes that sold for ridiculous prices were to fail on finance because appraisal said the price paid wasn’t worth mortgaging you would see a more realistic market.

  4. Wertt

    at 10:15 am

    I was going to look at a small semi-detached house on Wolverleigh having an open house last weekend, but it sold out from under us after 1 DOM. Turns out the agent had decided not to hold back offers, and got an offer 3% over list that was accepted by the seller before the first open house! While its refreshing to see someone not playing the game, from the seller’s point of view I can only think this property would have had a much higher selling price with a formal offer night in this market.

    1. laura

      at 1:25 am

      What serious buyer waits to go look at an open house days after the listing appears? If you are truly interested why not make an appointment to view asap with all your ducks in a rowe, best offer ready to roll.

      The early bird gets the worm.
      Life’s not fair

      2 sayings that come to mind

  5. Chroscklh

    at 11:04 am

    Is make me laugh because I bought current house on offer date on beautiful weekend. I expect million offers and house go for many hundreds thousands over ask – maybe half mill. Only one other offer show up – guy who must hate beautiful weekend like Chroscklh. I crush his bid but was prepare pay least 300k$ more than I actual pay so I very happy. So I say, feel free hold offer on weekend, on holiday, on George Clooney boat fighting 100 ft wave in ‘Perfect Storm’ – I still show up, I glare at agent (can’t help – resting face), take house and then we celebrate

  6. Kyle

    at 12:00 pm

    What about week of the year to list then hold offers? Those with detached houses tend to wait until the weather improves to start listing. Not sure this is the best strategy anymore. Maybe it’s just me, but recently i’ve noticed a new pattern emerging, houses listed in late Winter and early Spring (Feb – March), seem to attract a lot of offers, due to limited supply. They then increase the comps for the houses that list in early April. At the same time demand seems to pick up creating bidding frenzies over the next couple of weeks, then all of a sudden buyer fatigue sets in and houses that would have got 6 offers the week before seem to only get 1 or 2 offers in May.

    1. jeff316

      at 1:38 pm

      Yes – the market in my area of Toronto went bananas in February both 2015 and 2014. Lack of inventory really drove prices up.

  7. Aaron

    at 8:38 am

    What about offers any time vs offer night?

Pick5 is a weekly series comparing and analyzing five residential properties based on price, style, location, and neighbourhood.

Search Posts