The current real estate market is a seller’s market. There’s still low inventory and a lot of buyers anxious to purchase a home, so if you’re selling, you are likely going to receive multiple offers. Today we’re going to give you some suggestions on choosing the very best offer for you.
- Price. This one’s pretty self-explanatory, but we will soon discuss escalation clauses. Escalation clauses are quite common in this current market.
- Is the buyer asking you to cover any of their closing costs? It’s very common that a buyer increases the price in order to have you as the seller cover some of their closing costs. In this seller’s market, we’ve actually seen buyers offering to cover some of the seller’s closing costs.
- Home warranties. It’s common for a buyer to ask the seller to pay for a home warranty or a home protection plan at closing. This could be a $500 to $600 expense for you. More often lately, buyers are either forgoing this request or paying for it themselves.
- Inspection contingencies. This is common, and we advise every buyer to get a home inspection when purchasing a property. We’re more often seeing buyers keeping their right to have the inspection, but they’re getting it for informational purposes only. Those buyers are stating that they won’t ask the seller to complete any repairs. This could be of great interest to you as the seller.
“If you’ve considered selling your property, now is the time.”
- Are the buyers paying cash or are they getting a loan? If they’re paying cash, there’s less risk involved with that transaction closing. If they’re getting a loan and the price is significantly higher, you may want to consider that being the best offer. Make sure they have a pre-approval letter from a good mortgage lender, or proof of funds if it is a cash purchase.
- Other contingencies in that purchase offer. Although we’re in a strong market, you may be leary of a house sale contingency. If it’s contingent on the successful closing of their property, that means it’s already under contract and you may want to make sure that your agent asks more questions so that you know where they are in the process. If it is contingent on the sale of that property that means it is not yet under contract. Another contingency you want to consider is the appraisal. Most buyers will have an appraisal completed on the property, but they may offer some sort of clause that states that they can pay above that appraised value if it does not appraise for the contract price. If that clause is not part of the contract, you may still want to take your chances on a satisfactory appraisal.
- Proposed closing and occupancy date. You want to make sure that you’re coordinating closing and occupancy dates that are convenient for you based on your needs.
If you’ve considered selling your property, now is definitely the time. The market is great for sellers. If you have any other questions about real estate, please feel free to call, text, or email us. We’ll be glad to help. Thank you and have a great day.
