Sellers Rights in Today’s Real Estate Market
Every seller wants a Bill of Rights so to speak when they put their home on the market. However, the real estate market has changed greatly and it is important to understand as the seller how to proceed in negotiating when you receive an offer on your home.
Negotiate the offer - the 1st is your best
- Buyers are under the strict impression that ‘bottom fishing’ in this market is the way to go. Understand that their realtor may have advised them to proceed this way or may not have. So don’t go crazy here. Imagine yourself as the buyer and what would you do. You might try to go with a low offer and see if the seller would bite at it at first.
- Whether the offer is what you call a good offer or not, it is required by the Realtor Code of Ethics that the realtor present every offer to you, the seller. Even when it is totally bizarre! Step away and return to the bargaining table in fighting form. Discuss the negotiation process and dollar amount you want to reach with your realtor…use her expertise to strategize a counter offer. This is another or your sellers rights.
- You hired your realtor based upon good representation they
Sell now so you don't own the home forever
made that they would work in your best interests. Let them come up with variables to make the counter offer more palatable…like closing timeframes, home repairs to be made, help with closing costs and financing alternatives. Expect your realtor to work hard for you here and not agree to whatever the buyer requests.
- Do you really want to sell your property? Whether or not your home is a waterfront, ocean front, coastal or neighborhood home for sale, it is a process of negotiating- that one set price in your mind does not always work for the buyer. It is a process of working an offer through a give and take. If that is why you put your house up for sale then you need to be prepared to sell by working out a sales price and terms that will make you satisfied and the buyer in agreement. You do not want to ‘own’ the house for longer than you planned.
- Take a run around the neighborhood or a one mile swim in the ocean but step away and come back to the negotiation table to deal on price. Remember your First offer is usually your best offer.
- Your realtor is here to help you negotiate a sales price – that is why your hired your realtor. It is an offer and counter offer situation and accommodations from both sellers and buyers is what makes the musical chairs of home selling a strategy situation. Both you and the buyers want to come out winners. Let your realtor do a great job.
Call me at 401-529-7849 if you are thinking of listing your home. Work with a local Realtor who knows the community well you live in!
