Should You Accept the First Offer on Your Squamish Home—or Wait for a Better One?

There's an old saying that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and I think that applies surprisingly well to real estate. One of the conversations I regularly have with sellers happens when an offer comes in quickly, particularly when it's the first offer. The seller will often ask me whether they should take it or whether the fact that it came so quickly means they should wait because maybe somebody else will pay more. It's a perfectly reasonable question, but I think the first offer should generally be taken very seriously. That doesn't mean you automatically accept it. What it means is that you need to judge the offer based on what the property is actually worth and what's happening in the market, rather than assuming that another offer will be better simply because it comes later.

Why the First Offer Can Often Be a Very Good Offer

When you first list a property, you're not starting with zero buyers. There is already a pool of people actively looking for a property like yours. They've probably been watching listings for some time, they've seen other properties, they understand what their money buys in Squamish, and in many cases they've already gone through the process of figuring out exactly what they want. In my experience, a substantial portion of the serious potential buyers for a property are already somewhere in that buying process when the listing first comes onto the market.

That's important because sometimes sellers get an offer quickly and immediately think that maybe the property was priced too low. They think, if somebody is prepared to offer this much already, maybe we should wait another week and see if somebody offers more. But that isn't necessarily what's happening at all. You may simply have put the right property in front of a buyer who has been waiting for exactly that type of home, and because they've already spent time learning the market, they're able to make a decision quickly.

In fact, I often find that those early buyers can be some of the most educated buyers in the market. They've seen the competition, they've watched price reductions, they know which properties have sold quickly and which ones have sat on the market, and they have a pretty good understanding of what they can realistically buy. So when they see the right property, they don't necessarily need another three weeks to think about it. They may already know that it's the one they want.

Don't Assume That Waiting Produces a Better Buyer

The problem with rejecting that first buyer simply because the offer came quickly is that the next buyer isn't guaranteed to be better. In fact, that buyer doesn't even exist yet. What you do have is a genuine buyer in front of you who has looked at the market, looked at your property and decided they're prepared to write an offer, and that has to carry some weight when you're deciding what to do.

New buyers will obviously continue to enter the market after your property is listed, but those buyers aren't necessarily as ready to purchase. Someone who has just started looking may want to see another five or ten properties before they feel comfortable making an offer. They may still be figuring out which neighbourhood they want, whether they prefer a townhouse or a house, or what compromises they're prepared to make. Meanwhile, your listing is getting older, and that can start to change the way buyers negotiate.

A buyer looking at a property that's been listed for three days can have a very different attitude from a buyer looking at exactly the same property after it has been sitting for several weeks. Once a property has been available for a while, buyers naturally start wondering why it hasn't sold and whether the seller is becoming more motivated. That can lead to a lower offer rather than a higher one. So the idea that you can simply reject the first offer and wait for somebody better isn't always how it works.

That Doesn't Mean You Automatically Accept the First Offer

This is where I think the old saying about the first offer often being the best offer can be misunderstood. It doesn't mean that you blindly accept whatever somebody puts in front of you. The decision still has to come back to market value and the current market environment.

If we've done our analysis and we believe a property is worth around $1 million, and somebody comes in with an offer at $850,000, the fact that it's the first offer doesn't suddenly make $850,000 a good price. We can counter the offer, we can negotiate, or we may determine that we're simply too far apart. On the other hand, if our analysis says the property is worth approximately $1 million and the first buyer comes in at a level where, after some negotiation, we're able to get to that market value, then I think you have to ask yourself what exactly you're waiting for by rejecting them.

This is why I don't think sellers should judge an offer based simply on how far it is below the asking price. Asking price and market value are not necessarily the same thing. A property can be listed slightly high, it can be priced aggressively to generate attention, or it can be listed very close to where we expect it to sell. If a property is listed at $1,050,000 and somebody offers $1 million, the important question isn't simply that they're $50,000 below asking. The important question is what we believe the property is actually worth in the current market.

Has the Property Been Properly Exposed to the Market?

Another important part of the decision is understanding whether the property has actually had appropriate exposure. That doesn't mean there's a magic number of days that every seller has to wait. It means looking at the marketing, the number of showings, the feedback we're receiving, whether other Realtors have indicated serious interest, what competing properties are available and how quickly comparable homes are selling.

If we've just listed a property and there are a large number of showings booked, several interested buyers and indications that another offer may be coming, then we may handle that first offer differently. But if the property has been properly marketed to the active buyers and this is the only person who's prepared to put an offer on paper, that is useful information as well. You can't ignore what the market is telling you simply because you hoped the property would generate more.

This is also where the current market environment becomes extremely important. In a strong seller's market with limited inventory and lots of buyer competition, there may be good reason to wait or negotiate more aggressively. In a slower market with more inventory and fewer buyers, a genuine buyer who's prepared to engage with you becomes considerably more valuable. The decision isn't based on a rule that says you should always take the first offer. It's based on understanding how likely it is that another buyer will come along and give you something better.

The Price Isn't the Only Part of the Offer

You also have to look at the whole offer rather than just the number at the top of the contract. Obviously price is incredibly important, but so are the conditions, deposit, completion date, financing and other terms. Two offers at exactly the same price can be very different offers depending on how likely they are to actually complete and whether the terms work for the seller.

Sometimes a slightly lower offer with strong terms may be more attractive than a higher offer with considerable uncertainty attached to it. That doesn't mean you automatically take less money, but it does mean that when I'm advising a seller, I'm looking at the probability of successfully completing the transaction as well as the price being offered. The objective isn't simply to get the biggest number somebody is prepared to write on a piece of paper. The objective is to successfully sell the property at a good price and on terms that work for the seller.

Don't Negotiate Against an Imaginary Buyer

I think this is ultimately where the bird-in-the-hand analogy becomes useful. Sellers naturally want to maximize the sale price of their home, and of course that's what we're trying to do as well. But there's a difference between negotiating hard with the buyer who's actually in front of you and rejecting that buyer because you're imagining that somebody better is going to come along.

Maybe another buyer will come along and pay more. That absolutely happens. But maybe the next buyer comes along three weeks later, sees that the property hasn't sold and starts considerably lower because they believe the seller is now more motivated. That's why the decision has to be based on evidence rather than hope. We need to understand what the property is worth, what's happening in that particular part of the Squamish market, how much activity the listing has generated, what else buyers can purchase and how strong the offer in front of us actually is.

If the evidence tells us that the offer is substantially below market value, then there may be a very good reason to push back or even let the buyer walk away. If the evidence tells us that the offer is at or around market value, then rejecting it simply because it came sooner than expected can be a very different kind of gamble.

So, Should You Accept the First Offer?

My answer is that you shouldn't automatically accept the first offer, but you certainly shouldn't dismiss it simply because it arrived quickly. The first buyer may actually be one of the most prepared and motivated buyers you're going to encounter. They may have been looking for months, they may understand the market extremely well, and your property may simply be the property they've been waiting for.

So rather than asking whether the offer came too quickly, I think the better questions are whether the property has had appropriate exposure, what the property is actually worth in today's market, what the current buyer activity is telling us, and whether the offer gives the seller a result that makes sense. If we've answered those questions and the offer represents market value, I wouldn't lose a good buyer simply because we're hoping an imaginary future buyer might give us more.

Judge the offer against the market, not against how long you expected to wait for it.