These are things every home seller should consider when weighing offers.

When you receive an offer on your home for sale, there are many things that you’ll need to consider. The first important thing to understand is that it’s not all about the price. We have to think about more than that.

The second thing we need to think about is how long the property has been on the market. If your home has only been on the market for a few days, we’re not going to be in a rush to accept an offer. We want to get the highest price possible, so we’ll typically wait about a week for more offers to come in before reviewing them.

Once we decide we have a good offer with a good price, the next thing that needs to be looked at is financing. We want to ensure that this buyer is going to be able to close and that they are working with a good, credible lender. I will call every mortgage broker before a seller signs to accept an offer because we want to ensure they have good credit, a solid down payment, and we can have a smooth transaction.

“You want the mortgage contingency to expire as soon as possible.”

After we get the financing locked down, we’ll take a look at dates. The closing date is important, but we also want to make sure things don’t drag on too long. Until we sign the purchase agreement, the buyer has a lot of different options if they want to back out. Once you sign the offer as a seller, it’s very hard for you to get out of a deal. 

Anywhere from seven to ten days after a buyer signs an offer, we’ll have them sign a purchase and seal agreement, they will put another deposit down of 5%, and the only contingency they will have is the mortgage contingency. We want the mortgage contingency to expire three weeks after we sign the purchase and seal agreement. As a seller, you want this to expire as soon as possible. Any good bank should be able to turn one around in three weeks.

If you have any questions for me about receiving an offer or anything else related to real estate, don’t hesitate to contact me via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you.