Six Offers on a Lincoln Park Home. Here’s How We Won.
By Emily Sachs Wong, Broker, @properties Christie's International Real Estate
Not long ago, a client of mine fell in love with a home in Lincoln Park. So did everyone else. By the offer deadline, the seller had six offers on the table.
Anyone who has been through a situation like that knows the feeling: you want the home badly, and you are also afraid of paying too much for it. Here is how we handled it, and what I think it shows about winning in a market like ours. (I've kept the address and my client's name private.)
The situation
The home hit the market in one of Lincoln Park's most sought-after pockets, priced competitively and presented beautifully. Inventory in the neighborhood is tight, so a home like this gets attention fast. Within days, multiple buyers were competing for it, and the agent kept offers open through the weekend. It was agonizing.
My client was a strong buyer, but strong buyers lose these situations every week. The seller's agent had told everyone the same thing: highest and best, by the deadline.
The temptation
There ended up being 6 offers. When there are six offers, the instinct is to throw a number at the wall and hope. Buyers in this position tend to either bid far too high out of fear, or stay disciplined on price and lose without ever being competitive.
Neither is a strategy. My job was to find the third path: make my client's offer the most appealing one on the table without paying more than the home was worth.
What we did
We started with value, not emotion. Before talking about strategy, we looked closely at comparable sales and what this home was truly worth to my client. That gave us a ceiling we could defend, which kept the competition from deciding the number for us.
We made the offer easy for the seller to say yes to. Price is only one piece of what a seller weighs. Certainty, timing, and how clean the terms are matter just as much, and in a six-offer situation they often decide the outcome. We built an offer that made the seller's decision simple: earnest money, inspection, cash terms, full flexibility on closing....and some other tricks I employ.
We were fully prepared before the deadline. My client was a cash buyer with full optics on where the money was coming from, so there was no doubt about viability. Had he needed a loan, we would have been fully prepared for that scenario. This kind of preparation matters because sellers and their agents are looking for the offer least likely to fall apart.
I made sure the listing agent knew exactly who we were. After 27+ years in this business, relationships matter. I called the listing agent directly to talk through my client's position and why this buyer could be counted on to close.
The result
We won the house! My client's offer was accepted, the final price relative to list price was in fact higher, but it was worth it. My buyer is so happy and knows they would have paid more for the next house that came on.
What I tell every buyer
A multiple-offer win usually isn't about the highest number. It's about the best-prepared buyer and the strongest overall package, built on a clear understanding of what the home is worth.
If you're thinking about buying, the work starts well before the offer. Get financing locked down, know what you'll pay and why, and have an advisor who knows the neighborhood and the people on the other side of the table.
If you want to talk through how you'd approach a competitive situation, I'm always happy to help.
— Emily Sachs Wong
