Negotiate Your Offer
You will already have a good idea of values after looking at homes for sale and learning the selling prices of some of these homes.
I can also provide you with details on recent sales of similar homes in the area. As a result, we will determine what fair market value should be, and negotiate our offer with that in mind. By the way, the homes I will be showing you will only make it onto our tour list if they are reasonably priced. There is no point in looking at overpriced listings, as the sellers usually are not ready to deal with realistic offers. When you are thinking of selling, this is an important point to keep in mind.
There are many terms and conditions that may be used in an offer. I prepare offers using standard legal terms tailored to your specific situation. These terms are designed to protect your interests. It is common for offers to include such conditions as financing, inspection, approval of strata documents and the like. Offers also include such terms as purchase price, items to be included with the sale, deposit amount, dates to pay deposit and pay for the house, and possession date.
If our negotiation with the seller is successful, then we have an accepted offer. If you have conditions on your offer and you later remove the conditions, the house is sold. During this conditional period, the seller can accept another offer, but only as a backup offer, subject to collapse of your offer. In other words, if you decide not to buy, the other buyer gets it. This is true even if the other offer is a higher price or a subject-free offer.
Offers require a deposit to be legally binding. Our industry recommendation is 5% to 10% of the purchase price. I usually prepare offers with an initial deposit of $1,000 upon acceptance to be increased to 5% of the purchase price upon subject removal, or if the offer is unconditional, deposit upon acceptance or by a given date. This deposit is held in trust and forms part of the purchase price upon completion of the sale.
On occasion, offers are made with no conditions. These so-called "cash offers" usually occur during hot markets with high demand and low supply, where multiple offers are common. Buyers look for ways to make their offers more attractive and "all cash" is hard to beat.
Now that we have an accepted offer, what happens next?
