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Douglas Trudeau , Assoc. Broker
Prudential Foothills Real Estate
64 N. Harrison Road, Suite 160
Tucson , AZ 85748
Mobile: 520-954-2209
Contact Me

Tucson Real Estate - Home Selling 107

It’s not over, there is still a lot more to do. Your home is on the market, buyers are looking at it. What’s next? Now we are preparing for closure. Again, this is written for a seller using a full service REALTOR® in Tucson, Arizona. Discount, FSBO or sales in other states may be totally different.

Buyers are going to be a good indicator whether your home is priced right or not. If it is priced acceptably, there should be a lot of traffic. If priced conceivably, less traffic. If unfavorably, little or no traffic. Buyers will let you know quickly. Rule of thumb is 30 buyers in a month and your home should sell within 30 days. So you’ve heard pricing before, so what.

Activity from buyers will let you know whether to hold out or to accept the first offer. How do you know? Easy, if you are getting a lot of interest, you may hold out for a better offer if the first one is too low. Ask your REALTOR® for feedback from agents showing your home. If nobody is looking and four weeks into the listing you get an offer you have to ask yourself, “Will there be another?” On the other hand if you get three or four offers early for a low price there is a clear message there. Don’t give your home away, but, at the same time don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Buyers will let you know based on interest.

Offers

In Tucson an offer is presented on a standard Residential Resale Purchase Contract. As a seller you should become familiar with this form from the day you list your home. There are a lot of safeguards in the contract, however, it does not cover everything. If you have special needs, make sure it is in writing in the original offer or in a counter offer. Anything in an offer is negotiable; price, closing date, inspection period, Escrow Company, earnest money amount, personal property, etc. Know what you absolute bottom line is before listing the home. Waiting to decide when an offer comes in may be too late.

If the buyers are presenting a complicated offer with a quick response time, beware, slow it down. You need to fully understand the offer before making a decision. If there are complexities in the offer that require legal opinion, get it before responding in writing. Normally 24 to 48 hours is sufficient time. If it is a clear, cut and dry, no nonsense, easy to understand offer that meets all your needs, go for it. Getting greedy and trying hold out for more could be a mistake, especially in a Buyers Market. In a Sellers Market, things are different.

Considerations

In a Sellers Market there are few considerations. Buyers make an offer that favors the Seller, Sellers accept, deal over. In a Buyers Market rules change. Buyers are looking for WIIFM (What’s In It For Me). As a Seller expect concessions, buyer closing costs, interest rate buy down, first year taxes, first year insurance, what ever your imagination will allow. When offers come in with concessions ask your agent for a cost estimate sheet with these allowances included so you have a reasonable idea of bottom line and whether to accept or counter offer.

Counter Offers

When making a counter offer there are some things to consider. You never know how the buyer will respond. They may accept your counter, they may counter back, or they may walk away from the deal. Being reasonable in a counter offer is important. This is an opportunity to have some fun as well. If, for example, you have a home on the market for $200,000 and the buyer offers $100,000. Don’t get upset with a low ball offer. I like to counter back at $300,000. It gets the buyers attention to be more realistic. If they go away, then they weren’t serious. There have been some who have come back and offered a reasonable price that my client has accepted.

In an ideal world you may see that rare bird called a multi-counter offer. This is when more than one offer comes in at a time. Multi-counters can be fun, but, have some risk. Basically you are trying to get both buyers on equal playing fields. The counter offers may be different with similar results. Say one is asking nothing and offering $185,000 for your $200,000 home. The other is offering $200,000, but, wants $7,000 in concessions. Your target is say $195,000. On the first the price may be $195,000. On the second you may offer $5,000 in concessions. Now each side is on and equal playing field. The advantage is if both come back signed, you as the seller have the final decision. The risk is, both can walk. So be reasonable.

Best Interest

What is in your best interest? Only you as the seller can answer that. When going through a contract with your REALTOR® make sure your response reflects your best interest. Assume nothing. If you verbally agreed with buyer for a specific condition, make sure it is in writing. If the contract has the Buyer’s name with a statement similar to “or as assigned” be careful. “Or as assigned” has an open interpretation which in some cases has lead to a buyer tying up a sellers property while that buyer is looking for another buyer to purchase the home. Other things to look for are

Who is paying for the appraisal?Who is paying for the home warranty?
Who is ordering the home warranty?
Is the home warranty part of the dollar concession?
What am I actually being asked to pay for?
What is hidden in the contract that I am not seeing?

Inspections and Appraisals

Home inspections in Arizona have default deadlines of 10 days for the buyer and a 5 day response time for the seller. The deadlines are for written response to the other side. These deadlines are negotiable when writing the offer or counter offer. Plan on the buyer needing access to your home for 2-4 hours. In Arizona there is the one bite of the apple concept. The buyer get one bite to tell the seller what they want. They cannot come back and ask for more. The seller gets one bite at responding. It is not a matter of negotiating. Depending on a sellers response, the buyer may have an additional 5 days to react to the sellers response. This hole process, using default time lines, can take up to 20 days.

If the buyer is using a Lender, the contract explicitly reads “Appraisal Contingency: Buyer’s obligation to complete this sale is contingent upon an appraisal of the Premises by an acceptable to lender for at least the sales price. If the Premises fails to of the appraised value to cancel this Contract and receive a refund of the Earnest Money or the appraisal contingency shall be waived.” If the lender won’t permit a waiver, the deal is dead.

Agreed Repairs or Corrections

Based on what the Buyers ask for there may be a need for time to make agreed repairs. In Arizona repairs are expected to be completed prior to Close of Escrow (COE). If repairs are not completed in time then the Buyer’s may require a hold back, traditionally 1-1/2 times the cost of repairs, to insure that repairs are completed. Once satisfactorily completed, the additional 50% is normally returned to the Seller. I have had only one case where the work was not satisfactory and the seller forfeited the additional 50%. So, it can happen. It is best to get the repairs done early.

Utilities

Utilities remain in the Sellers name until the utility company is notified. Normally the COE date is the transfer date of utilities from Seller to Buyer. Normally calling a week before COE insures are timely transfer.

Walk Through

It is recommended that Buyers perform a walk through to insure all agreed repairs have been completed. This is not a time to ask for more repairs, only to check and accept what was agreed on. Buyers will need access 1 to 3 days prior to COE, so, be prepared. If everything is cleared out 3 to 4 days prior to COE, that give time for final cleaning and preparation for the walk through inspection.

Close of Escrow (COE)

I prefer to have Sellers sign 1 to 2 days before COE. That insures that everything is back to the lender and everything closes on time. Keys are released to the Buyer when the sale records with the County. Most sales record late in the afternoon of the close date. Proceed checks are then cut or money wired to the Sellers account after the closing has been recorded.

Congratulations, you have sold your home and graduated from the Tucson Real Estate Home Selling course. I hope the sale of your home is enjoyable and full of good memories. If you had a good experience, refer your family and friends so they can enjoy the same.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 10:11 am and is filed under Tucson Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are a few items I call “credit report killers” that your clients should be aware of that can adversly affect their credit report and credit scores.

There really isn’t too much room here to explain in detail but I have actually made a video about the top 10 credit report killers. This video was made form the .pdf version which I wrote.

In this video I answer the most common questions I get about information that appears on credit reports.

Specifically I cover information on Charge-offs, Collection Accounts, Judgments, Inquiries, Bankruptcies, Delinquencies,and more…

In the video Your clients will learn what each of these items are and how they can affect their credit report, as well as how long each item can remain on your credit report.

The video is very informative and is solid content for your readers and clients.

The Video is Free to Watch Here

The .pdf version you can downloaded here Free

Sincerely
Credit Expert Frank Bruno
http://www.DisputeDemon.com

July 30th, 2007 // Frank Bruno
Some great points, Doug….inactivity is always a clear indication of a pricing issue….

July 30th, 2007 // Rich Jacobson

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