Everyone knows that the big shining object in a real estate offer to purchase is the price. Buyers and their agents use the price to blind home sellers to the trouble hiding in the details. If you let yourself become blinded by the bright light of a high price, you’ve set yourself up for frustration. A wise agent earns their money by helping their selling clients avoid becoming blinded by the light.
The purchase price takes up two lines of the agreement. There are at least 11 pages in a standard Wisconsin purchase agreement. The devil is in those details. Don’t assume everything is standard and harmless. Everything has a purpose and the purposes are mostly to give the buyer time to reconsider their commitment.
Often, my clients hear the price and reply something like, “Sounds good to me!” Because I know their goal is bigger than just locking up an accepted offer, I go through the agreement to identify the bits and pieces that might be problematic. When we have the opportunity to discect the terms of the agreement and discuss the impending consequences, we then have the opportunity to clean up the offer in our favor.
For most clients, some risk is acceptable, but for all clients, contingencies that allow a buyer strong leverage to renegotiate or walk away are unacceptable. And, regardless of what a buyer’s agent says is the intent of their client, the words of the contingencies ARE the buyer’s only stated intent.
Negotiating offers is my favorite part of my work. We can’t always get everything we want, but we can get what we need, or walk away knowing we didn’t get caught in a trap.
For more ideas about negotiating purchase agreements, call me to set up a time to meet.