Reviewing Purchase Offers with Your Listing Agent

Do you understand to look for and which items to focus on when reviewing purchase offers with your listing agent? Your North Carolina real estate agent will analyze each purchase offer, present those offers to you, and review all terms and conditions with you. After answering any questions, you and your listing agent should focus on counteroffer and negotiation strategies. Below, you will find a few of the items to pay close attention to when reviewing your purchase offers with your North Carolina listing agent.

Buyer’s Offer Price

The amount a buyer offers for your home is a clear starting point as you begin to consider purchase offers with your listing agent. Remember, it is important not to take low offers personally and let your emotions affect your decision-making. Pay close attention to the offer price compared with the offer terms, including contingencies, earnest money, etc. Looking at the full picture will give you insight into the buyer’s mentality and help you determine your counteroffer strategy.

Earnest Money Amount

How serious is the buyer about purchasing your North Carolina home? The amount of earnest money they offer is a good indication of their intentions. Both the amount of these “good faith” funds and the conditions for surrendering the funds are very important factors when looking at the entire purchase offer.

Response Deadline

A buyer’s purchase offer will include a particular period of time for the seller to respond to the offer. Use this time wisely to review the offer, plan a counteroffer negotiation strategy or to see if other offers come in during this timeframe. If you like this offer but extenuating circumstances will not allow you to meet the response deadline, counter the offer with an explanation and an alternate timeframe that you can meet.

Closing Date

In most cases, buyers will need between 30 to 50 days to arrange financing and come to closing. Remember, the longer the closing period, the more it will cost you to carry the property. Also, if you have a house under contract that you are purchasing, then you may need the proceeds from the sale of your house for that transaction.

Contingencies

Pay close attention to the contingencies a buyer puts in the offer to buy your home. The buyer will include these key requirements as part of the terms of sale. Some of the contingencies you may see include: ability to obtain funding, home inspection, the sale of buyer’s current home, approval of HOA documents, and an appraisal contingency.

As a seller, you will need to understand all contingencies and decide if you want to accept an offer packed full of conditions that allow the buyer to walk away from a pending sale.

Financing

The ability of a buyer to obtain a loan is one of the major contingencies of purchase offers. Pay close attention to the terms of the financing because they could give the buyer a number of ways out of the contract. Your listing agent may counsel you to think about looking carefully at a lower priced offer because it may be a better overall offer due to the terms of financing.

Property Inspection

Another popular contingency in the buyer’s purchase offer which deserves mention is the inspection contingency. This contingency gives buyers the option of backing out of the deal if they aren’t satisfied with the results of one or more professional inspections. Both sellers and buyers must pay close attention to the time limits and deadlines associated with this contingency. Some listing agents recommend sellers perform a pre-inspection and fix any issues before listing their North Carolina home for sale.

By no means are the above terms and conditions the only items sellers should pay attention to when reviewing purchase offers with their North Carolina real estate agent. However, this does give you a good starting point and some valuable knowledge to bring to the table as you sit down with your listing agent to review contract offers from buyers.

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