Your house has been for sale for several weeks now, (hours?) and it looks like the day you have been awaiting so long has finally arrived. You have been presented an offer for your house.
Combinations and permutations are several, but for the purpose of this conversation, we will suppose that you are selling your own house, perhaps For-Sale-By-Owner and the prospective buyer is working with a Realtor, so the Realtor has prepared the offer and sent it to you.
A few years ago the presentation of an offer would include a hard copy of the offer along with a real earnest money check, and a few other side documents. Today you will probably be presented with an electronic email image and a promise to pay earnest money.
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The PRESENTATION
No matter the method of presentation, there will probably be an ending point, before which the buyer would like an answer from you as to whether or not you agree on the terms of the offer. This only makes sense from the standpoint of the buyer, because until you make a decision up or down, they probably cannot look at, and try to buy another house, because they are risking buying two if both sellers finally decide to say “yes.”
The second advantage to the buyer sometimes, is that a little extra pressure is placed on the seller. Some types of people might get excited over an offer and a bit of pressure might cause them to agree to more liberal terms than they would normally prefer.
So, whether you are given the offer electronically, or had it physically handed to you by the buyer’s agent or even your own agent, do this first. Go to one of the last pages, along about line 428 (they are numbered in the left hand margin.) See when they desire an answer.
If the time they allow your decision is too short for you to do your due diligence, then point that out immediately. People don’t usually buy a house in an emergency, so you deserve enough time to think it over, to get with your spouse, your family, your attorney, or whoever you need to consult. Tell them by phone or email or in person, however you can.
Do not be too silly about this, but normal is a day or two or over the weekend, unless there is some other complicating circumstance, and if that is the case, they will probably share that reason with you. Otherwise, you are well within your rights to point out that you need longer. Tell the agent immediately that the truncated timeline is a deal-killer. Tell them that you are excited about the offer, but you do need whatever amount of time you need.
Tell the agent that they need to take the offer and make that change first, and then you will go ahead with studying it. If the time-line has to remain, then they still need to get the offer back, because you will not go any farther.
You will be worried about being so firm, but don’t be. If you bargain from a weak position, you may well not end up with a result that is satisfying to you.
So remember, when you get an offer, look at the price, of course, but as soon as you can, look at the “drop-dead time” and be sure that gives you enough time to run a “net sheet” of all your expenses at that sale-price to see what your walk-away net will be. If they are not going to give you enough time to do that, they are not serious about buying your house.
Whether you consult your mom or dad or kids or attorney or agent, or if you just need time to pray about it, don’t let anyone rush you. The moment anyone seems to be trying to rush you, throw a penalty flag and take a deep breath. Tell the other person what you need to do in your decision-making process. If the buyer is legit, they will give you the time you need. Don’t be shy.
The STALLING
Now for the hard part.
I used to make a “slow-down” reccommendation for seller protection. Now I must talk about sellers over-doing it!
Today’s market has spoiled many sellers. Houses are selling fast. As sellers, we have always believed that “our” house is so great that buyers would fight over it. Now, that may be the case.
In the early days of the planet, we would take an offer and negotiate it to an end, successful or otherwise. Then, if a second offer existed, we would negotiate that one.
If the seller was, for instance, out of town over the weekend, and two or more offers were received before they returned and had a chance to negotiate one, all the brokers involved were advised that several offers were on the table simultaneously, and to be fair, all brokers were being advised, and given until a certain time to submit their highest and best offer.
Now, some sellers are no longer trying to be fair, but rather trying to maximize, by starting out choosing an arbitrary date, and encouraging high offers up until that date.
And that thought is good, in fact, we exist to help the seller make more money.
But my thought about this is that it’s a slippery slope. Don’t be like the gas station owner who charges extra high prices during a fuel shortage. If there is a reasonable and/or valid delay prior to your negotiation, that is one thing. But to delay just for auction-simulation purposes is dangerous.
We still usually have appraisals to deal with.
And in the yin and yang of real estate, sellers eventually become buyers.
So, for now, just a thought. Let’s not abuse negotiation delays, so they don’t become another “coming soon” problem that must be dealt with.
My advice is to simply look at the last page of the offer, and if it is too quick, just tell the broker that the time-line is too short for whatever you need to do. Ask them to please change their buyer’s end time to even be in the consideration. Tell them what all goes on in your decision-making world, and that you are receiving a lot of activity. Don’t just say “the auction is over Tuesday.”
They will understand. If they don’t. at least, you tried.
Good luck for now! Get to work if you want it to happen. Call me if you want to talk. Yes, I am the Reasonable Realtor. Don Martin, MARTIN PROPERTIES (615) 973-8970.
Just make your comments here, or you can reach the Dean of Graduated Realtors at www.FSBO-GUY.com or “like” him at http://www.facebook.com/MartinProps
And please don’t forget our book The NEW REAL ESTATE will be out in a few days. You need to have it on YOUR bookshelf!
Don Martin
Martin Properties (Flat Fee MLS to Full or Graduated Services in Nashville, TN)
