When buyers tour a home and decide it is the one for them, their next step is to make a written purchase offer to the seller/homeowner. When you receive a purchase offer, it is a good idea to look at the details of the offer beyond the purchase price offered.
What Should Sunset Beach Home Sellers Look for in a Purchase Offer?
The Financing
If you receive a full price offer, it is a great feeling. If you receive an offer just over your list price, that is even more exciting. Before getting too excited about making that ideal profit, make sure to check the financing details included in the written contract.
You want to ensure as much as possible that the potential homebuyer has a solid financial footing to make the offer. This can include having a pre-approval letter included with the offer. If the buyer is planning to purchase the home with cash or use a large amount of personal cash for the purchase offer, you want to look for proof of funds included or ask to see proof of funds using official documents from the financial institution that is holding the money.
Look Over Contingencies
It is standard to have at least one or two contingencies included in a purchase offer contract. The most common contingencies that the smartest of homebuyers include in a contract are the inspection contingency and the financing contingency. These help protect the buyer to ensure they are able to make a sound investment. These contingencies are not a cause for alarm. However, you want to make sure you are aware of any other contingencies that may have been included. Make sure you are well aware of the extra requests in the purchase offer made by the potential buyer. You want to ensure that the contingencies requested are reasonable and that you are willing to agree to them. A contingency means that the close of the home sale is dependent on these requests going smoothly.
Likewise, if a buyer has waived all contingencies, you want to ensure all of the details of the home purchase offer look sound and solid. It is not common for a reputable homebuyer to waive any and all contingencies protecting them in a large, life-changing purchase.
Requested Closing Date
Before accepting a purchase offer on your home, check the proposed closing date. It is standard to set it for 30 or 60 days from the date of acceptance, but don’t assume that this is where the closing date is set. Make sure to check the requested closing date. You don’t want to agree to a closing date that is set at only 15 days out, if you are unable to get all of your belongings out of the home in that shorter timeframe, it wouldn’t be a good idea to agree to a quicker closing. You want to ensure the purchase process timeline works for both parties.
Concessions
With more bargaining power on the buyer side as home inventory increases, it is not uncommon to see a request for seller concessions from the homebuyer. A concession is extra help from the seller on the buyer’s behalf to make purchase conditions more attainable for a buyer. Common concession requests currently include a mortgage rate buy-down and covering some of the buyer’s closing costs. It is a good idea to have a trusted real estate professional help you walk through what it could look like to accept these requests. They can help you to determine if using some of the profit from your home sale to help the buyer out a little bit would benefit both parties. Sometimes it can be more beneficial to offer these instead of opting to take a lower purchase price offer on the home.
If you are considering buying or selling a home in Sunset Beach, please contact us. We are here to help you with any Sunset Beach real estate needs, both buying and selling properties.
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