FSBO Bidding War

We have two prospective buyers for our house. Is there a professional way to handle this?

Your realtor should be able to tell you.

I've had this happen in my last 2 house sales. There are legal subtleties involved- for example, if the first offer comes in lower but the agent said something like, "we'll consider it" that could be construed as an acceptance. I hope you have a realtor who knows how to handle it.

In one case, my realtor had 3 parties each submit a "Best and Final Offer" and we chose the highest of those 3. In the second case, the second-highest offer was accepted as a backup bid. The first buyer backed out and the second couple got the house. (The wife later confessed that she'd been praying that the first deal would fall through!)

Tell them both that you have multiple offers and ask for their "highest and best".

The best thing to do is to consult a realtor in your case.

There is no realtor involved as this is a for sale by owner situation. We fell into this, neighbors knew we were thinking of selling and had friends call us.

if you know a good realtor, you can still hire a realtor to do the negotiating and paperwork for you. you can get them for MUCH less than their normal fee as you are only having them do a very small piece of work on your behalf.

We did a sealed bid. House sold--we're out of a bad financial situation and hopefully onto better days ahead!