Offers and Negotiations are a critical juncture in the sale of any property, and they can really make or break a deal. After all, the goal of all this marketing, open houses, and showings is of course to get an offer on your home, and then create the best deal possible with the offer(s) at hand.
There’s an old adage in real estate that your first offer is usually your best offer. And some of the time, that’s actually true. But it’s a lot easier to make your best offer even better if you have several other offers which came in just after it, by forcing the most motivated buyer to step up and offer a better price and terms. It’s important that your property have a long enough market exposure – between about 10 and 14 days – before you review any offers. You need to allow time for all interested parties to get in the home.
Negotiating is where the rubber meets the road, and you can turn a good offer into a great one. Even if you do have just one offer, if it’s come in when the property is new on the market and the seller has done all the disclosure work up-front before the offer came in, the seller is going to be in a strong negotiating position and should be able to virtually dictate the terms to the buyer.
