In Selling Your Home, Part 1, I reviewed how to recruit your REALTOR®, prepare your home for sale, and list your home. Once it’s been listed, now it’s time to show your home to potential buyers and receive and negotiate a resulting offer.
Show Your Home
As soon as you list your home, you must live in it as if the pickiest buyers can drop by for a visit any time, because they can! Ideally, you will have a checklist of items to tidy up within 30 minutes of receiving a showing request, and you will also run through a quick tidy run before you leave the house.
How will you be notified of showings? Your REALTOR® may be able to set you up to receive the notifications of showing requests as well, which cuts down on the number of calls back and forth and allows you to confirm your own showings.
After each showing, your REALTOR® will also contact the agent to solicit feedback on your home. Do not contact the showing agent yourself, as you can inadvertently let information slip that will hurt your ability to net the most money later.
Receiving and Negotiating Offers
If your home is priced correctly within the current market, you should receive one or more offers. Most homes that are priced correctly receive offers within one month. If you have not received an offer within a month, then you need to revisit your strategy with your REALTOR®.
The offer will contain several terms to be negotiated, including:
- The price
- Loan contingencies
- Inspection contingencies
- Subject to sale contingencies (meaning the buyer must sell their current home before buying yours)
- Included items (appliances, etc)
- Closing date
As a seller, you have three choices: accept the offer, reject the offer, or make a counteroffer. Making a counteroffer is by far the most common, but the other two choices do happen. Your REALTOR® will be able to advise as to what is a reasonable offer, and what should be negotiated.
If you do agree on a purchase agreement with the buyer, then it’s time to move to the next steps: Inspections, Appraisals, Loan Commitment, and Closing!
