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You've Got an Offer - Now What?
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One of the more significant events in you life may be selling your home. Selling your home signifies
transition, change, and leaving the place where events and memories that helped shape your life.
There will be differences: perhaps a new job, new schools for your children, leaving old friends and
creating new ones. Also, a lot of money is involved – perhaps one of the largest monetary transactions
you’ll be involved in during your lifetime. It’s a time of concern – there will be strangers looking
at and evaluating your home, numerous documents to sign, phone calls to make and issues to be
negotiated. A home sale involves many personal and business concerns so it’s important to get it done
right and efficiently as possible. You must prepare your home for showing, understand the real estate
market, and identify your expectations for a reasonable selling price.
So, what is a reasonable offer?
Obviously, your goal is to have an abundance of interested buyers offering higher and higher prices
for your home. While this has been known to happen in some real estate markets, generally there is
a balance between the number of buyers and the number of home sellers. There are a number of factors
to consider when determining whether an offer is reasonable and acceptable. Some of the principle
factors are:
- Does the offer meet your expectation for a selling price?
- If the offer is close to your asking price, has the buyer made any conditions on the sale such
as discounts and seller costs or small clauses and contract additions?
- Are there any alternatives to a specific buyer's offer? If your home has not attracted any other
offers, then you must consider the options understanding that every month you occupy the home
costs are being incurred for mortgage payments, taxes and insurance.
- Are you in a hurry to sell or have an obligation to relocate by a certain date?
- What will you do if you don’t get any other offers?
- What if you get several offers? How do you decide which one is the “best” offer? Do you
choose the highest offer even though the buyer hasn’t been pre-approved for the price, or do
you choose the lower offer from the pre-approved buyer?
What is a counter-offer?
An offer made in response to a seller’s stated expectation. Generally a counter-offer includes
concessions along with an agreement to sell the property to the potential buyer on terms differing
from the original offer. Offers and counter-offers reflect the process of negotiation, the
back-and-forth activity until an acceptable term is realized. It is an effective and practical
process for obtaining the highest price the market will bear for your home.
Should you accept the highest offer?
Not necessarily. Perhaps the buyer with a slightly lower offer has already been pre-approved for
the amount of the offer, and the higher offer has yet to be qualified at all. What happens if the
buyer with the higher offer doesn’t qualify in the end? Also, you need to consider the terms of the
purchase. Does the buyer with the higher offer have more expectations for you, the seller, to perform
certain upgrades before the sale? Be cautious though, being “greedy” can backfire on you. Determine
what price you expect and what concessions you’re willing to make before you actually put your house
on the market; however, be willing to adjust your expectations based on what the buyers are willing
to spend.
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| Copyright 2005. Nancy Clark. All Rights Reserved. |
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