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I have seen too many sellers get
their dander up in this situation, and if you do, you have nowhere
to go with it.
Important! When a buyer informs you they are writing an offer, there
are two things to keep in mind:
#1 Remember all those disclosures from chapter 7? Give the buyers a
copy of your disclosures BEFORE they present you with the offer and
have them sign an acknowledgement that they have received them. Date
and time this.
If the buyers have not received the disclosures before the offer,
then the buyers have a certain timeframe after they receive them (in
California it’s 72 hours) to renege on the contract without any
reason other than they disapprove of the disclosures. This is the
third day after the sale and is right when they are suffering most
from “buyer’s remorse”. Do not give them an easy out by letting this
slide. You will regret it and so will the buyers. Buyer’s remorse
will disappear as the escrow progresses and then the excitement
stage sets in anew.
#2 Sometimes, when they are writing an offer on a FSBO, buyers will
ask the seller “What will you take for the house?” or “Will you take
$XXX,000?”.
The answer you MUST give to both these questions is:
“Why don’t you put it in writing so I can sit down and go over all
the ins and outs of it” or something along these lines. The reason
is; if you say you’ll accept a certain price, you have just
established a new “start negotiating” price. Their thinking is if
you will accept $XXX,000 then let’s try $YYY,000. Get them to put
the offer in writing and don’t forget about the disclosures!
A lot of buyers, especially when dealing with FSBO’s, will try a
pretty low offer to start with just to get an idea of where you’re
coming from.
IT’S ONLY AN “OFFER”! |
