This is a very important topic, and I owe my knowledge of this to realtor Bob Casagrand. I started a new thread about the median.
Other tips:
Bob tells me that as a buyer’s agent, he tells his buyers to pick 3 homes. Don’t get emotionally attached to one home, because if you do, you lose your purchasing power. Make a 24-hour offer on property #1. (My addition: write in the offer letter this is a firm and final offer, and that you have 2-3 other homes on which you are ready to make an offer; this puts pressure on the seller to take your offer and not mess around with countering; if they do counter, have your agent remind them that you mean it: firm and final or you walk. This sort of happened to me in my sale, and boy does it work!!) If the sellers counter, you go on to property #2. Only give them 24 hours; put more pressure on them.
I am sure the realtors on this blog can give you more tips.
Let us know how the offers turn out. My only other tip is to wait. I think the big price drops will start in 2008, as the majority of ARM holders are headed into foreclosure, inventory jumps, buyers keep decreasing as fear sets in, bank REOs make the news, and sellers who need to sell have to fight hard for the few buyers out there.
