Accepting offers from buyers

Please note that I describe the process as though you are selling the house on your own. If you choose to accept the help of a real estate professional like me, I will take care of most of these things and guide you through the things that you need to do.

What constitutes an offer?

Offers are usually prepared on an offical form. The offer form tells you the price that the buyer is willing to pay, the contingencies that makes the offer invalid, and the deadlines for accepting the offer, and the time frame for the post-offer steps including the closing. If the buyer is represented by a realtor, you will also be given a copy of the contract between the buyer and the realtor which shows the percentage of commission that the realtor will collect from the sale price.

Insist on pre-qualification from a lending institution.

From your part, insist that the buyer is pre-qualified for a housing loan from a lending institution. This is to make sure that the party making the offer is viable buyer. You do not want to go through the travails of price negotiations and home inspections only to discover later that the buyer has no adequate funds to buy the house.

When you are happy with an offer.

If you are happy with the offered price, contingencies, and time constraints, you can indeed accept the offer by signing the offer. It is common practice for the buyer's agent to hold on to the earnest money and deposit the amount in an escrow account maintained by the brokerage.

When you are unhappy with the offer.

You can outright reject the offer and hope a better offer comes along. Or if there is room to negotiate regarding the offered price or contingencies, you can write a counter offer.