Having a real estate agent assist you with selling your house is helpful for so many reasons, and you may really need your agent's advice when you receive an offer on your house. If the offer is not a full-price offer or if it has contingencies or anything else that is different from what you were offering with your house, you may wonder how or if you should counter the offer. Here are several things your agent will discuss with you if you are in this position.
The risks of countering the offer
When a person makes an offer on a house, the seller of the home has the right to counter it; however, if this happens, the buyer could reject the counteroffer and this would void the entire deal. This is the main risk you take if you are not completely satisfied with the offer the person gives you. When people make offers, they will often make them for lower prices than what the sellers are asking, or they will ask for other things. They may also include contingencies that you may not completely agree with.
If you cannot agree to everything the offer contains, you could either reject the offer completely or you could counter it. It's just important to realize that anytime you counter an offer, you take the risk that the buyer might back out of the deal.
Fair options for a counteroffer
Your agent can help you decide whether you should counter the offer or not. If you decide to counter it, your agent can also help you determine what a fair counteroffer would be. If you can agree to everything in the offer except the price, you may want to raise the price just a little in your counter. If there are other things you do not agree to, you could also state those changes. For example, if you were not originally including your appliances but the buyer wants them, you could state that you will leave them, but that you will be raising your price by $2,000 to compensate for them.
You could also counter the offer by including some incentives to compensate for the increase you are asking in the price. For example, you could offer to pay some closing costs for the buyer, or you could offer free lawn-mowing services for six months. Ask your agent to help you come up with a fair counteroffer that the buyer would be likely to agree to and accept.
Knowing how to handle a counteroffer can be difficult, especially if you do not want the deal to fall through. If you need any help with this, talk to a real estate agent today.
Share10 May 2017
I have never been one of those people who loves to shop, which is probably one of the reasons I had such a difficult time choosing a house. I wanted to find the perfect little place for my family to grow up, but that was easier said than done. I knew that I wanted to work with a professional who could really grasp my vision and put me in a place that I would love, so I started focusing on finding the right professional. After a brief search, I was able to find a team of real estate brokers that I knew would do a great job. This blog is all about choosing the best real estate agent for your personality.
