Do Offers Get Better With Time?
Unlike fine wine, offers to purchase your home do not get better over time.
Believe me, your first buyer is more often than not your best buyer. Real estate agents everywhere will tell you that they have seen this to be the case time and time again. I was speaking with a agent recently who has been in the business for thirty plus years and she could not ever recall an instance where a subsequent offer bested the first. Generally speaking, the potential buyer who makes the first offer is motivated and ready to do business. The first offer might be lower than you would like, but that’s what negotiations are for.
You can hold off in hopes of better offers, but many times properties sit on the market too long growing stale because the seller did not work with the first buyer. Months later, the seller ends up taking less than the first offer they received. By this time, that first buyer has already bought and moved on. The seller is kicking themselves for not making it work.
Remember time is not on your side as a seller. Time is a seller’s enemy, and a buyer’s ally. As days on market increase buyers seize the opportunity to drive the price lower, and are very cognizant of how many days your home has been listed. They will use time as ammunition in the defense of their offer.
While you may see it as an insulting “low ball” offer coming out of left field, you should still look closely at a first offer. Who is the buyer? How long have they been looking? Are they testing the waters with the initial offer, trying to see how motivated you are? Have they written other offers nearby? Is this offer actually a number that is close to the number your real estate agent initially suggested?
As hard as it may seem to contemplate an offer lower than your asking price, serious sellers should look at all the signs leading up to it and consider if this is the offer to accept. Trust the phrase:
The first offer is always your best offer.
Wallingford Real Estate – Wallingford, PA 19086
