One of the aspects of selling a house is how and when you will get an
offer. Some sellers will get an offer within the first week the house
is listed while others will have to wait for weeks, even months.
Regardless of how long you have to wait, when that first offer comes in
you are giddy with excitement when your agent calls to tell you the good
news.
Hopefully the amount offered is close to the asking price
so you can just take the deal and be done with the process. Sadly the
offer is much lower then you would like to accept right at the moment.
What do you do now? Do you bother to counter the offer or do you just
let the buyer know that they are way off the mark?
Your agent will
likely recommend that you counter with some reasonable middle ground
offer. You don't want to give the house away but you do have the ability
to come down off of the asking price. You have run the numbers and know
you can go down to a certain price but with no concessions and no
closing cost. You let your agent know and together you come up with a
fair counter offer. This is the art of negotiating which is something
that your agent should be able to help walk you through.
Here are a few
quick tips in order to get you through a difficult negotiation and reach
your ultimate goal of selling the house:
1. Make sure you are in
constant communication with your agent. Do not walk away angry if the
price is too low or if the potential buyer is asking for a lot of
concessions. Your agent is on your side and they will want to know why
you didn't like the offer and what could be done to fix it. After all
they make money when you sell and not until then.
2. Take a few
deep breaths. If you get some unexpected news about the price or
something you have to do to close the sale take a deep breath. You might
want to take some time and do some exercising like running or riding a
bike. There is sometimes a limit on the offer but that is typically at
least 24 hours. You don't have to make a decision in the first few
minutes.
3. Take your emotional attachment from the house and look
at your situation logically. Do you want your house? Are you ready to
move into a new place? You are trying to move on with your life so stop
feeling so attached to it and come down on the price so you can sell it
and move on.
4. Be patient during the sale. After you make a
counter offer you want to give the buyer time to digest everything. If
you get impatient and barrage the buyer with request they might just
walk away. You have waited this long already just wait another 24 hours.
5.
Respond to every offer that you are sent. Always respond with a fair
offer. You don't have to give it away but don't respond with the
straight list price. Come down something, even if it is only a few
thousand dollars. It shows respect for the buyer and for their time and
effort and it could end in a sale in time.
By
Melissa Gifford
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