Best and Final Offer Strategy Real Estate NYC Sellers

[showtime]

What is the final and best offer process in NYC and what are some tips for best and final offer negotiation? How should sellers in NYC proceed with a best and final auction for their property? If they're lucky enough to get multiple offers, what's the most kosher way to go about the best and final auction? Should you not let anyone improve after the best and final auction is over? Looking for any advice and best and final offer strategy for real estate sales in NYC. Thank you!

[lower_nyc]

What is the final and best offer process in NYC and what are some tips for best and final offer negotiation? How should sellers in NYC proceed with a best and final auction for their property? If they're lucky enough to get multiple offers, what's the most kosher way to go about the best and final auction? Should you not let anyone improve after the best and final auction is over? Looking for any advice and best and final offer strategy for real estate sales in NYC. Thank you!

Best and final scenarios are difficult to predict as a buyer because each seller behaves differently. Most sellers will conduct very transparent and strict best and final exercises whereby they won't allow improvements after the deadline or give away bids to other parties (shopping offers). On the other hand, some sellers won't hesitate to screw over the highest offer to earn a few more bucks even if a 'best and final' exercise is being conducted.

In general, I think best and final exercises make a lot of sense for sellers whose apartment is a true candidate for multiple offers early on in the sale process. Best and final allows the seller to set clear expectations with the existing offers on timing for a decision, and it also gives buyers a chance for closure. If a buyer is outbid in a best and final, the losing buyer should not be disappointed because it should mean that the winning bidder is paying more than what the losing bidder feels the apartment is worth.

Many sellers often think and assume they will automatically have multiple offers after the first open house. This couldn't be further from the truth. Most apartments in NYC take 3-4 months if not longer to sell. The types of apartments which go in bidding wars are either super unique, rare, and/or are in a neighborhood/price point that is conducive to strong demand.

Here is an example of something which may end up in a price war: a $400k, true 1br pre-war condo in Park Slope one block from Prospect Park.
Here is an example of something which will NOT end up with multiple offers: a $2.5m one bedroom co-op in Chelsea which has monthly maintenance of $5,000.

[hassan]

Not to suck up at all to the administrators of this forum, but honestly I just Google'd this topic and they already have an extremely comprehensive article on best and final offer strategy and tactics in NYC (see link below). I would highly recommend you read this as a first step. I was pretty shocked coming from a bond trading background how loose the NYC real estate market is. Unlike the trading floor, when you say "done" on a trade it is one hundred percent binding, I was shocked to find out there was no such honour in real estate. A seller can say we have a deal, send out a contract, and the buyer could even have signed it and sent over a contract deposit, but it is still not done until the seller countersigns. The seller can still sell it to someone else before counter signing. Truly unbelievable.