Sellers – Pay Attention to All Offers!

Selling Your Truckee Real Estate

Whether you are selling real estate in Truckee or somewhere else, selling a home can be an emotional experience because most sellers have a lot more than money invested in their homes. So, it’s understandable that sellers might be reluctant to respond to an offer that is for less than the asking price.

Most sellers have a difficult time being objective about their homes. Detachment is something sellers should strive for, particularly when the market favors buyers. To be a successful seller in a buyer’s market, you need to be able to put yourself in the buyer’s shoes. Ask yourself, if you were a buyer, would you pay the price you are asking for your home?

In a soft market, like we are currently experiencing in Truckee, buyers are prone to making low offers. The exception is when a listing is priced so competitively that a buyer recognizes a good deal and buys the property before others have a chance.

Some sellers might be inclined to inflate their asking price so that they will have room to bargain with a buyer. This is a risky strategy for serious sellers. In a buyers’ market where there are a lot of homes for sale, the best listings at the best prices sell.

The listings that don’t sell usually need price reductions to get them to a marketable range. If the market is trending downwards, this could mean selling for a lower price than might have been possible if the listing had been priced competitively to begin with.

Sellers whose homes are not competitively priced are prime targets for low offers. Even if your home is not badly priced, you could receive a lower-than-asking-price offer if market conditions are uncertain. Rather than being insulted by a low offer, sellers should view it as the beginning of a dialogue that could result in a sale.

Pay close attention to the buyer’s financial capability. Gone are the days where buyers could buy a home with little or no cash down, and without verifiable income. Today’s buyers are subjected to far more financial scrutiny by lenders than they were a year ago. Ideally, buyers should be pre-approved for the financing they need before they make an offer. If they are not, make sure there is a clause in the purchase contract that requires the buyers to apply for financing within a several days of acceptance.

There is more to an offer than price. The terms and conditions of an offer are very important as well. For instance you will want to be aware of the length of the contract (close of escrow), is the offer All Cash or is the buyer going to obtain a loan?, who pays for what?, what is included? – is the buyer asking for all of the furnishings, the snow blower, etc., what are the contingency release time frames? These are all important parts of the negotiations. Buyers and sellers often don’t know in advance what price they’ll accept until they’re in the midst of a negotiation.

If you aren’t satisfied with an offer, you will enter into the counter offer phase. The counter offer process can happen quickly or it can be long and tedious. These days, sometimes, we see counter offers going back and forth a half a dozen times. Be prepared to explore all options before letting a negotiation fail.