Ready to Make Your Move?
When you get offers on your home, it’s exciting. It can also be nerve-wracking! Smart buyers want to negotiate with you, especially in this market. To take your sale to the finish line, you’ll also have to negotiate with them.
You may not have much time to respond to an offer, perhaps just a day. Each offer will include the purchase price offered and important dates like the closing date, inspection date and date of possession. You’ll see whether the sale is contingent upon other factors, such as the buyer obtaining financing or the sale of the buyer’s current home.
When the offer is made, you’ll have a better understanding of the financial position of each potential buyer and know whether each is offering cash or will buy with a mortgage. You’ll know whether they have been approved for a mortgage, if they have to sell a home in order to buy yours, when they want to move and perhaps even how flexible they are. With multiple offers, all of these will help determine which offer is best.
Once you review the offer, you can accept it as is, reject it or make a counter-offer where one or more items can be negotiated. I use the negotiation period after my clients receive offers to help ensure they move forward with the least amount of hassle and earn the most amount of money. In negotiations, you can ask for a higher purchase price, a different closing or possession date, less time for a buyer to meet the contingencies, a higher earnest money amount or even a “rent-back” period, where you continue to live in your home for a short period after the sale. Many areas open to negotiation! Even closing costs and items in your home can be negotiated! I help clients by knowing what’s most important to them and negotiating to help get them what they want. The key to negotiating well is feeling good about what you’re offering buyers. If you’ve priced the home right, staged it well and marketed it properly, you’ll have the upper hand.
It’s important not to let your emotions get away from you. You may be surprised to find yourself feeling sorry for a buyer who says something like, “This is all we can afford” but who seems to really want your home, or you may feel offended by a low offer. Many people start low because they just want to negotiate or they’ve used one of those online value estimates and don’t really know what your home is worth. Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes and ask your agent to make a reasonable counter offer.
Understand that the best offer may not always be the highest price offer. The best offer is the one that’s most likely to make it all the way through the closing – one who won’t terminate upon inspection, who has seen your house and is pre-approved for a loan (or has cash). I help clients make sense of all the offers and help them understand the pros and cons of each one.
Ready to get moving? Call David at 720-408-7409.