Even as the market settles down a bit with an increase in interest rates, many homeowners selling a home in Bend are receiving multiple offers shortly after listing. With the right marketing strategy and proper pricing, you can reasonably expect to see a lot of interest in your home within a short period of time. To find out what you need to know before listing your home, contact us any time.
If you end up in a situation with multiple offers for your home, here's what you should keep in mind when choosing the offer to accept. It comes down to more than just the offered purchase price.
Purchase Price
This is the simplest criterion for determining which offer to choose. The highest offer is likely to catch you attention, but remember the actual purchase price is only one of the financial factors you should consider. Also keep in mind whether they are asking you to include any furniture or other features of the home, asking for you to cover some of the closing costs, or have any other special requests that may offset the higher purchase price.
Buyer Funding
Even if the amount the buyers offer is the same, the strength of their funding may lead you to prefer one over the other. A buyer that is offering all cash is much more secure than a first time buyer with a 3% down payment. It is not always the case, but consider a situation like this: you accept an offer for $800,000, but the home appraises for $750,000. A buyer who is offering all cash is able to move forward anyway, but the buyer putting just 3% down must either drastically increase their down payment or lower the purchase price.
Sometimes, your buyers' funding scenarios will not be so drastically different, but take a look and consider whether one seems to be coming from a stronger financial position.
Contingencies
Most offers will come with at least some contingencies. They might include:
- An appraisal contingency, which is usually required by lenders to prove that the value of the home is comparable to the price being offered. This protects the buyer (or their lender) from ending up upside down on a property.
- Inspection contingency, allows the buyer to back out of the contract without penalty if the home inspection reveals a problem with the home that they do not want to deal with.
- Seller's contingency, saying they can only secure funding or move forward with the purchase if they are able to sell their current home first.
Timeline
The timeline of the sale may end up being even more significant than the purchase price or another financial factor. Finding a buyer that can work with your timeline means not having to deal with rent backs, storage units, and other inconveniences.
Take a look at when each buyer is able to close. Depending on your situation, you may prefer a shorter or longer escrow period, so one is not necessarily better than the other. After determining when you want to move out, take a look at the offers and rule out any that won't work with your desired moving timetable.
Miscellaneous Factors
Finally, you need to consider unique extra factors that may matter to you. In some cases, the criteria listed above may not lead you to an obvious choice. The purchase price, contingencies, and timeline may all be pretty similar and leave you feeling torn.
This is when you should take a look at other factors. This might include:
- An escalation clause, where a buyer is willing to outbid competing offers up to a certain point.
- An offer to cover some of your closing costs
- Being willing (and able, based on funding) to waive an appraisal
- Offering a rent back without charging you rent
Ready to learn more about how to sell your house in Bend? We can help you prepare the home to put its best foot forward, pricing it well to sell quickly and attract your ideal buyer. Contact us any time to learn more.