How to Choose Between Competing Offers in LA
The moment your listing agent calls to say you have six offers feels like the finish line, but it's really where the real decision-making starts. Price is the headline number, but it's rarely the only thing separating a good offer from one that falls apart in escrow. I've seen sellers take the second-highest offer and end up closing two weeks faster with far less stress, because the highest number isn't always the strongest deal.
Look Past the Purchase Price First
Before you even compare dollar amounts, sort your offers into cash and financed. A cash offer at $50,000 below your top financed offer might still be the better choice once you account for the risk of an appraisal contingency or a loan falling through in underwriting. If everything is financed, look at the buyer's lender. A pre-approval letter from a well-known local lender who has already reviewed the buyer's file carries more weight than a generic pre-qualification from an online lender neither your agent nor the buyer's agent recognizes.
Contingencies Tell You More Than Price Does
A clean offer with a ten-day inspection contingency and an appraisal contingency that's already been waived is often worth more in practice than a higher offer sitting on a twenty one day inspection period and a full appraisal contingency. Ask your agent for a contingency summary alongside every offer, not just the price and close date. Pay particular attention to the loan contingency, since that's the one most likely to blow up a deal thirty days into escrow, after you've already taken your home off the market and turned down every other offer.
The Deposit Size Matters More Than People Think
In Los Angeles, earnest money deposits typically run around 3% of the purchase price, though it varies by price point and property type. A buyer willing to put down 5% or more is signaling real commitment, because that money is genuinely at risk if they walk away without a valid contingency reason. A thin deposit on an otherwise strong-looking offer is worth a second look, especially from a buyer you haven't heard much about from your agent's network.
Timing Can Be Worth Real Money
If you need a fast close because you're relocating or already have a home under contract elsewhere, an offer with a fourteen-day close might be worth more to you than a higher offer closing in forty five days. The reverse is also true. If you need a rent-back period to stay in the home for a few weeks after closing while you finish your own move, a buyer willing to accommodate that at a fair daily rate can be worth accepting over a marginally higher offer with no flexibility.
Multiple Counters, or Highest and Best
When several offers land close in strength, you have two real options. You can counter each buyer individually on the specific terms you want changed, or you can ask all interested buyers to submit their highest and best offer by a set deadline. The second approach tends to produce a cleaner outcome and moves faster, but it can also feel adversarial to buyers, and in a neighborhood like Los Feliz or Larchmont, where the buyer pool for a given price point is genuinely small, burning that goodwill occasionally costs you if the deal falls through and you have to go back to the same pool.
Every one of these calls comes down to what actually matters to you, whether that's the highest price, the fastest close, or the offer least likely to fall apart. Walking through the full offer package with your agent rather than just the price column is where good decisions get made. If you're getting close to listing and want a sense of what your situation is likely to attract, I'm glad to talk it through before you're staring down six offers at once.
