Your house is For Sale and you have been marketing it. All of a sudden you get an offer. The questions start racing through your mind. Do you accept it as is? Do you counter the offer? Is a better offer around the corner? Which points should you negotiate?
The best time to decide on what kind of offer you will accept is before you even put the property on the market. This isn’t as easy as it seems. There are a lot of decisions to make besides price. Everything in real estate is negotiable. People may want you to pay some of the closing costs, they may want some repairs done, they want a new roof installed before closing, they may want to rent back for a couple of months before closing.
Decide what is most important to you:
* Do you need a certain amount of cash? It is a good idea to discuss the sale with your financial advisor. In many cases, the cash you get from selling your personal residence may be tax free. This may be an important factor in deciding what kind of offer you will accept.
* Do you need the money from your house for a down payment on another property? Decide how much you have to get from the sale of your house, so you can structure a counter offer around your cash needs.
When an offer is presented do your best to find out what is most important to the buyers:
* They may be asking for many concessions, but one or two will be most important, and the others just bargaining points.
* They may be asking for a new roof but may be just as happy with a lower sales price.
* Be sure and obtain a pre-qualification letter from any buyer. You want to know that the party who is making an offer will actually be able to get a loan for the property.
Unless someone made you a full price cash offer, it is always a good idea to counter the offer. If someone made a serious offer on your house, there is always room for negotiating. Your house stays on the market until you accept an offer. By negotiating you buy yourself time for someone else to make a second offer.
But there is no need to get greedy. If you are happy with an offer by all means accept it. If your house has been on the market for a long time, you may happy to just see an offer. But if the house is new on the market, you may be able to get a better offer while negotiations are still taking place with that first buyer.
Buyers will make the offer with a deadline for acceptance. Wait until near the end of the deadline to make a counteroffer. This way you do not look anxious and, again, it gives you time in case another offer comes in. There is nothing like competition between two people who are interested in a house to help drive the purchase price up.
If you determine the price you will accept before selling the house, and use some negotiating tactics when offers come, you will make sure you get the top dollar for your house when it is time to sell.
Your Coldwell Banker agent is trained in negotiating and how to get the best price for your home. Give us a call.
