How Sellers Can Find the Best Offer

Here’s how sellers should pick the best offer for their homes.

Even as our market begins to cool, we are still in a strong seller’s market. If you list your home, you should be prepared for offers to come in fast. That’s why today I want to go over how you pick the best offer when selling your home.

So what happens if you get an offer the first day you list your home? Should you take it seriously, or wait and see? The short answer is yes; you should take every offer seriously. The long answer is that you and your agent need to look at whether or not an offer fits your needs.

For example, do you have a place to move to lined up already? Do you still live in the house? What’s your time frame? You should also look at what type of financing the buyer is working with. If they’re paying in cash, you probably want to consider their offer more seriously. Of course, you want to discuss the price as well. However, just because an offer is initially low doesn’t mean you should ignore it. The buyer could be testing the waters, and if you ask them to raise their price, they might agree.

“Before you accept an offer, you should make sure it fits your needs.”

It’s our job as real estate agents to help you understand everything that’s in an offer. As you can probably tell, a lot more goes into a good offer than price. For example, if you get an offer that is $15,000 over list price, it initially seems like a no-brainer to accept. However, if the home doesn’t appraise for the offer price, will the buyer’s financing cover the extra cost? When you have multiple offers, this is the sort of thing you need to keep in mind.

Once again, you should take every offer you receive seriously, and your real estate agent can help you navigate which one best fits your needs. If you have any questions about today’s topic, please reach out to me via phone or email. I am always willing to help.