Selling your house? When should you accept an offer and when to negotiate.

Should You Accept an Offer or Should You Counter-offer?

Selling a house can be a tricky business, especially when its your own home which is often full of memories, but one you can easily do when you have the right information. The amount of money that you can make or lose will depend on how you handle an offer.

There are times when you should accept an offer - such as if your home is in an area where homes are harder to sell. Some places, like out of the way rural areas, don’t always sell as quickly as more populated cities and towns.

?Your first offer might be the best one to take if you’re in a hurry to move. As long as it’s close to your asking price, you’ll want to seriously consider it. Obviously, if it’s a ridiculously lowball offer, you’re better off turning it down. You don’t want to practically give your home away. There are times when you should automatically counteroffer. Sometimes a potential buyer will make a first offer that’s much too low. Some homeowners are immediately offended by this and won’t even bother negotiating. A good quality estate agent should fend off those lower offers and help keep the emotion out of the sale.

Buyers want to save money as much as sellers want to make money on the transaction. If you don’t think you can keep the emotion out of it, then you need to let an agent handle the deal. But if you can handle it and you really want to sell the house, then offer a counteroffer to the buyer. In many cases, it can be helpful to come down just a little on the asking price. Not much, but enough to show that you’re open to negotiations. There can often be a back and forth between the buyer and the seller before both parties reach a price they’re happy with.

If you have a lot of interested buyers, then you can afford to stand firm on your asking price because you might end up in a bidding war. You can wait until multiple offers come in and decide which one is the best for you.

Sometimes the counteroffer won’t have anything to do with money. You can have buyers who want to ask for ‘extras’ and sometimes these can be over the top but this can be used to negotiate their offer. ?Have a think about what you are prepared to ‘throw in’ when negotiating like carpets, curtains and furniture or even delayed completion or an expedited sale if you are in a position to do so. In cases where a buyer wants a lot of concessions, you’re always better off counter offering. If your home is priced to sell and it’s a hot market, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t fight for more.

One area that people often forget is understanding the position of the buyer; what is their position??Do they need a mortgage??And if so do they have surplus funds available in case the banks’ valuation comes in below the agreed purchase price??If they are a first-time buyer where is the deposit coming from??If its from Mum and Dad then they may want to see the property before you complete.?If you receive a cash offer have a think about how much this is worth to you, for those who don’t want to risk losing their next house this can be ideal.?If the person offering is in a ‘chain’ and has a house to sell then you may want to consider asking them if they are in a position to buy yours if their house sale falls through, many buyers are prepared to take out short term lending (bridging) to secure the house of their dreams so there is no harm in asking the question.?You really should think about the position of the buyer and rate their ’risk factor’ in terms of how likely you think they are going to complete on the sale or pull out.

?Considering all of these points will help you decide whether and how to negotiate on the sale of your home, just remember, don’t be prepared to gamble away what you’re not prepared to lose!