Day: October 4, 2026

By: KeyCrew Media

In the competitive towns of Essex and Union counties in New Jersey, losing an offer on a house is a normal part of buying one. According to Mark Slade of Mark Slade Homes, it is very common for buyers to lose at least three offers, and sometimes five to seven, before one is accepted.

Losing a few is expected. Losing again and again for the same reason is where Slade and his business partner, MaryCeu Nunes, try to step in.

Start by Looking Back at the Offers You Lost

Slade often meets buyers who left another agent after a string of losses. His first step is asking questions. Why do you think you lost? How many offers did you make? Did your agent follow up with you afterward?

If enough time has passed, he also checks where those homes actually sold. Comparing final sale prices with the advice the buyer received usually shows the pattern quickly.

Comps Show the Past, Not Today’s Competition

The most common pattern Slade sees is buyers leaning too hard on comparable sales. “I can give you comps, but comps aren’t the most important part of the equation,” he says. “It’s a baseline, because what happened yesterday may not be what’s happening today.”

What matters more is how many other buyers are bidding. Slade’s general guide: with no offers or just one, a buyer may not necessarily need to pay over asking. With three to five offers, expect to pay over asking, often ranging from 5-15% over asking. With seven to 16 offers, you can expect the premium to be much larger, even as high as 50% over asking.

So before writing an offer, Slade asks the listing agent directly how many offers they expect. The answer is not always exact. He might be told five, and it ends up being 11. But it tells him whether a buyer faces a few competitors or several.

He recalls one couple who made somewhere between 14 and 20 offers over about nine months and kept pointing back to comps. Slade eventually sent them a report comparing each home’s list price, his recommended range, and the final sale price. The report showed how his range stacked up against what each home actually sold for.

For a later home listed at $999,000 with 11 offers, his research pointed to a final price of at least $1.35 million to $1.45 million. He advised them to waive the appraisal. They worried about waiving the appraisal and challenged him to answer, “What would happen if the property appraises at only $500,000?”

His response was to ask why a home listed at $1 million, in a town where homes consistently sell over asking, would appraise for half of that. He also acknowledged that the buyers could face financial exposure. The good news is that this scenario can most often be remedied by using lenders with Appraisal Waiver Programs, which Slade shares with all of the team’s buyers and also with buyers he meets at open houses.

Set Expectations Before the Offer, Not After

Buyers keep their confidence when they understand the competition going in. After a loss, Slade frames the result with specifics. A buyer may have landed in the top third of 21 offers on a home where the listing agent originally expected seven.

He is also careful about the line between advice and pressure. “I am not trying to spend your money,” he tells buyers. “Let’s pick a number that if you lose to a higher offer than the threshold you set, you are ok with not winning the bid.”

A recent example shows how that works. Slade had already written nine offers for one couple when they toured homes in New Providence and Madison and narrowed their choice to one. The listing agent told him plainly to expect four to five offers. The buyers suggested about 6.25% over asking. Slade explained that might hold up against two or three offers, but likely not five, and recommended going higher. They offered almost 10% over asking, in line with his usual guidance for that level of competition.

Their offer was chosen. Before the deal was even under contract, Slade designed a moving announcement card with a photo of the house and sent it to them simultaneously with making the call that their bid was the winning bid. They were in tears.

What Buyers Can Do Differently

Ask your agent to do their best to find out how many offers the seller expects before you set a price.

Look up the final sale prices of homes you lost and compare them with the advice you were given.

Decide ahead of time how you will handle the appraisal, so you are not deciding under pressure.

Treat comps as a starting point, not a ceiling.

Slade, known for using fun analogies to help explain many scenarios, uses one to gauge how much interest his buyers have in a property. There is a definite range from Maybe, Pretty Sure, to I Want It. A lover of ice cream, Slade likes to reference the sizes at Cold Stone Creamery: Like It, Love It, and Got To Have It. When buyers answer this question, he applies that “filter” to the competitive situation. He also relies on Appraisal Waiver lenders to give him the highest safe values a property may appraise for, so he can give his buyers a copious amount of information and advice.

Buyers preparing for their next offer can find more on the process through the team’s buyer resources page. They can also read Slade’s eBook for buyers.

Mark Slade Homes is a Keller Williams team led by Mark Slade and his partner MaryCeu Nunes, serving buyers and sellers in Maplewood, South Orange and primarily in communities across Essex, Union, and Morris counties, but also beyond those borders from time to time.

The team has closed more than 850 transactions across 54 New Jersey municipalities and markets its listings through its SMART RE-SULTS™ Listing System.

Disclaimer: This article is based on information provided by the expert source cited above. It is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or real estate advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any real estate or financial decisions.