Sell My House Houston Pros: Once You Get An Offer On Your House, What Should You Do?

The day has come that you’ve chosen to make your house available on the property market. You’ve likely created Home For Sale signs with your contact info and put them on the corners of busy intersections, and you’ve likely even gotten a local realtor to arrange for an MLS listing of your home.

Now, you wait.

The First Call

A few days might pass before you get the first phone call. Someone’s calling in response to the signs or MLS listing, and he says he’s thinking about buying your home. What should you do? Regardless of how eager you might be, don’t make the mistake of doing things too fast. You’ll run the risk of creating a disaster instead of enjoying any profits from your sale.

First and foremost, keep your cool and ask some questions. Find out if the caller is an aspiring or current homeowner, a landlord, an investor, a flipper or rehabber, or just a realtor. Also, inquire about how they found out specifically about your ad and where they’re from. Be polite but also thorough, and discover if they intend to pay in cash. If a caller’s serious about buying your property, all your questions will get answered. If not, he might just be kicking the tires and hang up after too many questions. Screening callers to figure out the serious prospects will keep the others from wasting your time, so don’t be an entertainer for anyone window shopping or daydreaming.

Once you vet the caller and establish that he is serious about going through with a deal, ask them if they’d like to see the house. That’s a great chance to measure them up for yourself and figure out if they’re really in the market. When you go to your home with the prospective buyer for an optical inspection, be sure to show off every square inch of your home. You want to do this to preclude the possibility of surprise renegotiations later because they found some undiscussed damage, flaw, or feature they didn’t see during their initial visit. End your inspection with a trial close with a simple question like when are you all doing the deal.

Haggling

This is the point where the odds are good the possible buyer will attempt getting you in agreement with a lower price. For instance, he might say something like, “What’s the lowest number you’ll take if I can get this closed in five days?” You need to have an answer ready. You might need several answers ready. On the other hand, if you’ve already reached your absolute bottom number, hold firm and make the buyer tap out or concede. If not, just wait for the next possible buyer.

Dealing with potential buyers is a lot like going through a complex courtship dance. You need to be prepared with all your numbers and figures by doing all your due diligence. On the other hand, you must also show some flexibility and adaptability, so that you can be willing to work with reasonable counter-offers that might be given to you.

Competitive Offer

However, if you want to sell your house in a process that is free of hassle, then give us a call. We’re not only willing and able to make fair, equitable offers on homes, but we also do what it takes to make our clients have the simplest and stress-free transactions of their lives. Give us a ring, so we have the chance to tell you even more about all of this.