out of curiousity- when selling your home (everyone respond!)

With reading all the posts here about people trying to buy and sell homes, and watching all those shows on HGTV -
if you are selling (or were to sell) your home, what is most important to you when considering an offer?

1) the amount of the offer being close to your asking price
2) the amount of the buyer's down payment/deposit
3) the date the buyer is able and willing to close
4) contigencies that might come with the offer
5) anything else you can think of that I didn't list here.

Re: out of curiousity- when selling your home (everyone respond!)

Great post...I'm curious too!

Re: out of curiousity- when selling your home (everyone respond!)

We just listed our co-op a week ago and got our first offer yesterday. Right now I think the most important issue for us is the offer being close to our asking price.
I am assuming that that would change if our co-op sits on the market for a long time.

Re: out of curiousity- when selling your home (everyone respond!)

I would put my list in this order:

1) the amount of the offer being close to your asking price

2) Any contingencies the buyer is asking for - for example if they have to sell their house first.

3) the date the buyer is able and willing to close

4) the amount of the buyer's down payment/deposit

I wouldnt entertain any offers unless the buyer was prequalified so the amount of the down wouldnt be that important to me. If the buyer was offering all cash which also affected the date that we could close, that would also be a consideration. But the most important was that they were the highest offer i thought i could get.

Re: out of curiousity- when selling your home (everyone respond!)

when we sold our last place we were most concerned with getting the asking price, but we would have negotiated with people who didn't have contingencies.

As long as the buyer was preapproved (if they weren't, we required them to get a letter to us in 48 hours), I didn't care about deposit.

the specific date wasn't important to us, but if they had contigencies and I had to wait months for them to sell, I would probably not have liked that. We ended up selling to a young couple who were renting, so that wasn't a problem.


One thing that we didn't like was when someone went REALLY way too low (we were just coming off the bidding war era and they offered more than 10% less), when they finally came up, they knitpicked our entire house at the inspection, saying they wanted a price reduction for stupid things like PAINT! We got rid of that bidder and were very happy to do so. I think that sellers are attached to their houses and as much as you shouldn't get ripped off, you should respect them and try to be friendly, if you can. I think it makes a world of difference sometimes. A friend of mine inherited a house and ended up selling it slightly lower than the highest bid, because there was a very sweet couple that they felt comfortable with buying her family's house.

Re: out of curiousity- when selling your home (everyone respond!)

When we sold our co-op we had two bidders and got them both up to the same offer (the amt we knew we would sell for). From the get-go I knew who I wanted to sell to because I knew she had the right financials (she could afford to buy our house if she wanted to) and she was a put together, intelligent and attractive woman who I knew the Board would approve. Obviously you don't have this obstacle when you sell your home, but I knew as a co-op seller, I wanted someone who would be a shoe-in for the place.

Message edited 1/12/2007 12:57:17 PM.

Re: out of curiousity- when selling your home (everyone respond!)

In order of importance for house:

1) amount of the offer w/ prequal letter attached

2) terms (any concessions requested)

3) closing date

If we were to sell our coop these would change for the same reaons noted above. Co-op boards can be really finicky so the person would need the right credentials + be able to afford the unit. I've seen a ton of people make offers with preapprovals but be turned down by co-op boards. Even celebrities get turned down so it's not about money at all.

Message edited 1/12/2007 1:14:22 PM.

Re: out of curiousity- when selling your home (everyone respond!)