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Don’t end up accepting an offer you’ll regret.
Key points
- If you’re selling your property, potential buyers will submit offers.
- You will get to accept, decline, or counter.
- You need to consider several issues when deciding on an offer, like is it truly a fair price and is the buyer pre-approved.
Listing a property for sale can be a complicated process. Ideally, after you’ve put your home on the market, you will get an offer from at least one potential buyer. It’s up to you to decide whether to accept the offer, decline it, or make a counter offer and see if the buyers will meet your new proposed terms.
It can be difficult to decide what to do when an offer is received, but here are a few key questions you should ask yourself to make a smart choice.
Does the offer provide enough to repay your mortgage in full?
First and foremost, you should make sure you’ll make enough profit on the sale of your home to pay off your remaining mortgage balance in full. This is after paying fees, including realtor commissions, transfer taxes, and other closing costs.
If you cannot pay your mortgage, you would have to bring money out of your pocket to the table to cover your outstanding balance. If you don’t have it, you could ask about a short sale but lenders may not approve it and it could damage your credit.
Is the price fair?
Of course, you ideally want to do more than just pay off your mortgage. Chances are good you’re hoping to get top dollar for your home and ideally walk away with a tidy profit. To make sure you get the money you deserve, it’s a good idea to compare the price the potential buyers want to pay with recent comparable sales.
If the buyers have lowballed you and made an unrealistic offer, you may decide either to walk away from the transaction entirely or to counter with a different proposed amount you’d actually be willing to sell the home for.
How long has your home been on the market?
If your house has been on the market for a long time, then you may not have a whole lot …….