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NEGOTIATING with
the buyer...
Discretion Advised
Ask your buyer for a Pre-Approval letter.
Make sure the buyer can be pre-qualified for the full
mortgage amount. If they cannot afford your property,
there is no reason to continue talks with them.
Most lenders offer a quick pre-approval process which
can be completed in less than a day for prospective
buyers. Savvy buyers will already have a Pre-Approval
letter in hand.
You do not want to sign a contract
and remove your home from the market while you wait for
a buyer to find financing. Buyers should have shopped
for financing before setting an appointment to tour you
home.
HOME INSPECTION...
Clark Howard, consumer
advocate and nationally syndicated talk show host,
recommends having your home professionally inspected
before placing your home "For Sale". In a "Buyers"
real estate market (more sellers than buyers) your home
should be free of defects before you receive a
purchase contract. His recommendation is to repair
defects found in the inspection report, keep all repair
receipts, and show the report and receipts to
prospective buyers. Two of our customers have had
contracts to "fall through" because of problems found as
a result of a buyer's professional inspection.
TIPS FROM A PREVIOUS CUSTOMER
1. I recommend having an appraisal done before you
price it because you will know the true value of the
property and won’t take yourself out of the market
by overpricing and won’t cheat yourself by
under-pricing. Add a little to the appraised value
for negotiation, but not too much over the true
value.
2. Turn on all lights and open the blinds when
someone looks at it. Realtors do this to make the
house look brighter.
3. Clean up and get rid of clutter. An empty
closet looks bigger than a stuffed one.
4. Cut the grass and make the yard look good.
First impressions mean a lot.
5. Keep fliers in the information box! A lot of
people will see these even if they don’t have the
Internet. I also recommend to only putting a few at
a time in the box. The weather will damage some and
if the box is crammed, people will think nobody is
interested because they are leaving the fliers.
6. Run an ad in the paper when the initial calls
slack off. There is a lot of attention at first,
but the calls will slack off after a while. I do
still get some calls on mine though.
7. Be patient… people will come!
8. Keep showing the property even if you have a
contract. A lot of contracts fall through for
different reasons.
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