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I was having a conversation with a prospective seller on Sunday who was one of those “all real estate agents are the same” types.

Sometimes, I feel like I would have to spend six hours with a person to properly, accurately, and fully convey my value to them.

Other times, I could do it in six minutes.

But then there are times when it’s simply never going to be accepted and absorbed.

“You list a property, you set an Offer date, and you accept offers.  Badda-boom,” he told me.

I think that most would agree it’s not that simple.  But when trying to understand the nuances of what makes one agent different from the next, or one agent’s process different from the next, you often have to value intangibles.

Easier said than done.

But let me give you an example that should be fairly obvious.

I just viewed a property that isn’t selling.  I have never heard of the agent, he’s from a discount brokerage, and that brokerage is located in Ajax.  Right off the bat, there’s a difference between him and his brand on the sign and, say, that of the Wright Sisters.  If I went to a house listed for sale and saw the Wright Sisters‘ name on it, I would immediately assign a higher value to home and feel far more comfortable with the property than I would with Mr. No Name from Ajax.  Why?  Because the Wright Sisters are experienced and professional, for one thing.  But more to the point, in the case of this “flip,” I would trust that the Wright Sisters aren’t hiding anything; it’s not worth the risk to their business.  The same cannot be said for Mr. No Name from Ajax.  I don’t know him from Adam.  This house is a “flip” and I don’t trust him, his seller, or the quality of the work.

I don’t know how the average consumer feels, but something tells me that an overwhelming majority agree, whether they agree knowingly or subconsciously.

This is a little thing called “brand value” that’s present in every industry and with virtually every good or service.

“Brand value” is also intangible, and while it’s easy to understand with different goods or services, many real estate consumers don’t want to admit that it exists when it comes to selling a home.  Some don’t like the thought of an agent’s “name” or face having value, either because that person is self-conscious or envious, or simply in denial.  Others want the brand value but don’t want to pay for it.

So that’s just one example of an “intangible” value of a real estate agent, but there are countless others.

When I spoke to his prospective seller on Sunday and he told me, “All real estate agents are the same,” and then added that we simply “Set an offer date and forward the highest offer to the seller,” I asked him if he could pick just one aspect of the sale process so that I could analyze and identify the intangible value.

He scoffed.

He said, “Sure.  Tell me how setting an offer date is any different from one agent to the next.”

“You pick a day.  Duh,” he said, thinking that his argument was iron-clad.

But as with every single part of the sale process, no matter how big or how small, there are always agents that do it better or worse than others…

As I was having this conversation, I thought to myself, “This would actually make a very good blog post,” so I took mental notes as I went along.

“Pick a day?” I asked back at the gentleman.

“Yeah,” he said.  “You wanna tell me there’s skill in that?”

“Alright,” I told him.  “So I’ll review offers on Saturday night at 8:00pm.  That’s the same as a Tuesday?”

He paused and then said, “Well, no, I mean not a weekend.”

“But you said that there’s no skill in picking a day for offers,” I told him.  “Now you’re saying that there is?”

He said, “Okay, great ‘gotcha’ there but, like, nobody is taking offers on a Saturday or Sunday.”

He’s wrong.

In fact, I see all kinds of agents setting a Saturday or a Sunday for “offer night” and it’s a huge mistake.  As is a Friday night.

Why would a listing agent do anything that potentially limits or hinders the ability of a buyer or a buyer agent to not only make an offer, but be in a position to fully dedicate him or herself to the process, with no distractions?  People go out on Friday and Saturday nights.  Sure, people also go out on weeknights, but not nearly as frequently.  People also go away on weekends, whether up to their cottages, or away for a wedding.

There are so many delicate intricacies in setting, maintaining, and evaluating an offer date, and it seems like some people aren’t aware.

I told the gentleman on the phone, “There is an optimal day of the week to review offers.”

He asked what day that was.

“Wait.  So you trust that there’s more to the process?”

He hadn’t conceded just yet, but said, “I’m happy to hear you out.”

After twenty years in this business, I am completely convinced that there is a “best day” for an offer night, and this conclusion has been made after listing and selling hundreds and hundreds of properties, and reviewing offers on hundreds and hundreds of offer nights.  Not only that, I’ve also made offers on behalf of hundreds and hundreds of buyers on other agents’ offer nights.

There’s no doubt about it; Monday is the best day.

Where possible, we usually list our properties for sale on Tuesday and review offers the following Monday.

Six days later.

What might seem like minutiae to you is actually a strategy to us.

A property is listed for sale on Tuesday.

Some buyers see it that night, some the next day, some the day after.

But by the weekend, most buyers have seen the home.  Many are back for their second visit at the open house, and some are even back for their third.

Sunday night is typically a relaxed night for most people.  It’s not a typical “weeknight,” although technically it is a “school night,” and while it falls on a weekend, it’s not like a Friday or a Saturday.

The idea is to have the buyers in a position to act the next day.

Monday.

The start of the “week” and when most people mentally flip the switch from weekend to work-week.

The idea is to have the buyers in a position to satisfy themselves of everything they need to do, to make an offer on the property.  They saw the house on MLS on Tuesday.  They went in person on Thursday.  They went back again with their parents on Saturday.  And now, on Sunday night, they’ve spoken to their agent and they have a plan for “offer night” on Monday.

Those buyers wake up on Monday morning excited and anxious, like most.  They go to the bank at lunch and obtain their certified cheque or bank draft.  They speak to their agent a few times throughout the day.  And eventually, they review, sign, and submit an offer.

But what do these buyers not do on Monday?

They don’t look at new listings.

If there’s an offer date set on a Thursday, the buyer has Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and half of Thursday to browse MLS for new listings.

By the time Thursday’s “offer night” rolls around, that buyer has had many opportunities to be distracted by new listings and could possibly find something that he or she likes more.

That doesn’t happen on a Monday.

And that is why we prefer to list on a Tuesday and review offers the following Monday.

I explained all of this to my new phone-pal, and he conceded.

“Makes sense,” he said. “When you explain it like that.”

But then he added, “How come I see some agents that have offers like two or three weeks after they list?”

Great question!

And one that only necessitated a three-word response from me: “Because they’re morons.”

He laughed and waited for me to say more, but I didn’t.  I preferred the simple answer here.

“Can you elaborate a little bit?” he asked, with a chuckle in his voice.

“People have short attention spans,” I told him.  “A property comes onto MLS on Tuesday, March 5th, and offers are on Monday, March 25th?  Are you kidding me?”

“Yeah, that seems like it’s too long,” he agreed.

“Think of how long those interested buyers have to find something else they like.  Those buyers – most of whom are accustomed to seeing offer dates six, seven, or eight days after a property is listed for sale, aren’t going to like this twenty-day holdback on offers,” I explained.  “They’re going to scoff at it from the onset, and some of them won’t even go to see the house.”

“They won’t go?” he asked.

“I mean, some buyers might figure that if offers aren’t for almost three weeks, then they’ll go see the house fifteen days from now.  Then they might forget, lose interest, or find something else.  Others simply won’t like the ‘strategy’ on behalf of the listing agent and the seller and might turn up their nose.”

I added, “I think that some of these agents hold back offers for two or three weeks because they have no idea what they’re doing, and other agents do it because they want two or three weekends to run open houses where they attempt to solicit new business.”

“Scummy,” my phone-pal said.

“Indeed,” I added.  “But not surprising though.”

“Okay, okay,” my phone buddy said.  “You convinced me.  I get it.  I do.”

But before he could go on, I interjected and said, “I’m not finished; there’s more.”

“With the offer date?” he asked.

I answered, “Yes, but in this case, I mean there’s more, not in terms of setting the offer date but rather moving the offer date.”

“I didn’t know you could do that,” he said.

Depending on the time of year, there could be more or less inventory on the market, and thus more or less competition.

You’ll never know if a buyer is thinking about bidding on your semi-detached home in East York, but also thinking about bidding on a semi-detached house in Bloor West Village that same week.  Some buyers focus on location and some are more location-agnostic, and when we had a listing in Scarborough two weeks ago, we were surprised to hear some folks at the open house tell us that they were going to bid on our house but also bid on houses in Mississauga or Durham.  Those buyers were clearly focused on price, first and foremost.

However, if you’re listing a semi in East York for $999,900 and there are five other listings for semi-detached houses in East York that very same week, with list prices of $899,900, $979,900, $999,900, $1,049,000, and $1,099,000, then you have to understand that there’s competition.

Competition is natural.  Competition is normal.  In some cases, competition is good.

But if you’re reviewing offers on Monday night and four other houses are doing the same, that’s going to affect your bottom line.

No doubt about it.

“There are times when you want to move your offer date,” I explained to the prospective home seller on the phone.  “You put yourself in the best position possible but continue to monitor your environment,” I told him.

I then cited an example from the spring of 2023 when I had exactly what was described above: a classic 3-bed, 2-bath, semi-detached house in East York.

“We listed on Tuesday,” I explained, “With offers to be reviewed the following Monday night, as we always do,” I told him.

“But by Thursday of that week, we had serious competition.  There were, by my count, eleven houses that could theoretically compete with us,” I explained.

I remember this situation very clearly.

I met with my team in the conference room at our brokerage and we pulled up all eleven listings and ranked them 1-through-11 in terms of the level of competition.  Then we listed the respective offer dates for each property.

The two most comparable and most competitive properties were also taking offers on Monday night, along with one other.

On Tuesday night, there were three properties reviewing offers, but they ranked much lower on our list.

On Wednesday night, there were four properties reviewing offers, also much lower on our list.

And on Thursday night, there was only one property reviewing offers, but it was probably the third most comparable.

As a result, we decided to move our offer date from Monday to Tuesday.

Why?

Why not Thursday, for example?  Thursday – where there was only one other property reviewing offers?

Why in the world would we choose to compete against three other properties?

A few reasons:

1) We wanted to “piggyback” Monday’s offer night.  The two most comparable properties were reviewing offers on Monday, and we figured this would set us up nicely for those buyers who were unsuccessful.

2) We knew we had a better listing than the three other properties reviewing offers on Tuesday night, and thus more of the buyers would flock to us.

3) Thursday was just too late.  While there would be the least amount of competition if we moved our offer date to Thursday, we knew that ten buyers would be out of the buyer pool by then.  Not only that, some of the remaining buyers might be too tired from a long, difficult week, and decide not to offer on our home.

The two sales from Monday night were very good for us.  Very good, indeed.

By Tuesday night, we had four buyers (that we knew of) who had made offers on those two properties, one of whom was so emotional from having come “second place” the night before, that they threw the boat at our home, and gave us a wicked price.

The decision to move our offer date paid massive dividends.

And while this too is an “intangible,” since the only way to definitively know if the strategy made a difference would be to sell the house twice, once on Monday, and once on Tuesday, you’ll just have to trust me on this.

Or not.

It’s up to you.

But the gentleman on the phone, listening to all of my stories, did trust me.

True story.

Now, there’s one other aspect to the offer date – and where things can go horribly wrong, that I didn’t explain to my Sunday afternoon cold-caller, since it didn’t seem relevant.

There are times when the listing agent has his or her offer process completely blown up by a third party, but the blame can be placed squarely on the listing agent him or herself.

Let me explain…

About 98% of brokerages use “BrokerBay” for showing appointments and offers, among other things.  And it’s very, very important to understand the nuances of the system – especially when it comes to offers.

There is a button on the back end of BrokerBay under the “Offers” that looks like this:

If a listing has a set “offer date,” then this tab should be in the “off” position from the moment the property is listed.

Why?

Because you don’t want another agent to hijack your offer process!

If you’re listing a property for sale on Tuesday, March 12th with offers on Monday, March 19th, then you turn that button to the “on” position on the morning of Monday, March 19th, and not a moment sooner.

If that tab is turned “on” then it allows a buyer agent to go into BrokerBay and click “register offer.”

So if an agent wants to bully your listing, you want to keep the control on your side.  But if that button is set to “on,” then that agent can register an offer.

Once that offer is registered, the system could, depending on other offer settings, email every other agent who has booked a showing to notify them there’s a registered offer.

Do you see the problem?

If you’re listed at $999,000, expecting $1,300,000 on the offer night, then what if some dummy agent submits an offer for $980,000 with three conditions, registers through BrokerBay, and an email is sent to 50 agents saying, “Bully Offer Registered.”

Now what?

Those 50 agents might think that you’re working with this offer.  They might think you’ve got a fantastic offer and that the property is going to sell.

No matter what happens, it causes confusion.

More to the point, you lose control.

I can’t tell you how often this happens!

I get a call from a listing agent saying, “Hey, an email was sent out earlier today, saying we have a bully offer.  I mean, we did get one, but we’re not working with it…”

Fair.

But did that agent call 50 other agents?  Did he reach them all?

I don’t know if I’m accurately conveying how much this could go wrong, but the point is, human error or some combination of inexperience and ignorance can royally screw up the plans that any listing agent have for their “offer night.”

I recognize that we’re not launching a rocket to the moon here, but many of these listing agents aren’t rocket scientists either…

So whether you’re setting an offer date, moving an offer date, or protecting an offer date, just know that there’s absolutely nothing basic, easy, or “standard” about the process…

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