Receiving Offers When Selling

With San Diego’s market being strong for sellers, you should be prepared to receive an offer fairly quick if priced right.

If you decided to price your property well, you will know it by the immediate requests for showings, and/or a busy open house. The best advice for this situation is to capitalize early.

The buyers that request an immediate showing are the most active in the market. They have been researching all the new activity and have already seen multiple other homes, which makes it easier for them to pinpoint a good property when it becomes active. These are the buyers that have submitted offers on other properties and have lost out. Now, add this to other buyers in the same situation, you have a multiple offer situation – meaning more money for you.

Receiving Multiple Offers

If you do receive inquiries and offers from multiple buyers, it is best to review them all at once so you have more leverage and control over the process. Otherwise, you will risk a certain strategic way of negotiating. Your agent will go into detail on the difference between a counter offer and multiple counter offers.

When we will deal with multiple counter offers and submit them all at once, we make it a point to ask for “best and final offer, which places a heavy weight on the most interested buyers by forcing them to offer their absolute best price before a certain date. Buyers know this will be their final chance to get the property so they tend to offer more knowing they are competing with other buyers.

Other things to add to the counter offer:

• Ask for a shorter contingency period.
• Shorter escrow
• Proof of funds
• Appraisal to be ordered within five days.
• No appraisal contingency
• Buyer pays for some of the miscellaneous closing costs.

Deciding which offer to accept when they are both similar in terms and price can be a little difficult at times. Especially if you have already submitted a best and final multiple counter offer. However, this is not a bad problem to have.

Proof of Funds

The first step is to check their proof of funds to understand who can secure their loan in the event more money is needed. An example of this would be after the home was inspected and the inspector noted the roof needed to be repaired fairly soon. By calculating this type of unexpected cost during the decision-making process allows you to figure out if the buyer has the funds to repair such cost. The buyer that does not have the funds to cover this repair will typically back out of escrow leaving you with nothing.

Understanding the buyer’s intention

Second, learn who the buyer is and what they intend to do with the property. Are they going to make it a vacation rental? Do they plan to build another story? By asking these questions you will be able to determine what they will essentially find out during the contingency period. Not all HOAs allow vacation rentals, and some homes cannot be built over a certain height. Having them back out during the inspection period can cost you a lot, so it’s best to understand the buyer a little bit more.

Conclusion

If all is equal, you need to determine which buyer is more serious. It is too easy for a buyer to walk away after they sign the contract so make sure the buyer you pick is serious about the property.

This is where a good broker really shines. They are the eyes and ears of your property and can tell you which buyer they think is most secure and committed.

At Patrize Properties we have many options when it comes to selling your property. Give us a call to discuss more.