Getting your home under contract can be a huge relief after preparing your home for pictures, showings, dreading a move, and stressing out wondering if anyone will finally come along and buy your home ahh! The first thing most people think about when someone does make an offer is, “how much is the offer?” That might be where it starts, but it’s far from where it ends. There are terms and conditions associated with every contract that can be a real burden on your bottom line or even getting your property closed in the end.
Someone can offer you 10—20% more than your asking price and everything seem like a dream but quickly become a nightmare. Because unless that offer is in cash, then there is going to be a lender involved, and the property will almost certainly have to be appraised for the sale price by a third-party independent appraiser. Getting your asking price or more is great until the bank won’t write the check and your home has been locked up under contract for weeks while you’ve gone along thinking it was all but over. There are tools that your Realtor can advise you to use to protect you from this kind of mess, but only if they are proactive and are predicting these potential problems.
What about contingencies? What kind of potential traps are being laid ahead of you in this offer? What does the buyer want to have inspected and who is paying for that? Some inspections can be hundreds or even thousands of dollars. They can even make you liable to disclose to future buyers if something is noted. What happens if the buyer decides that they aren’t “satisfied” and the contract is contingent on their satisfaction? Most times the seller is stuck having to pay to try to make it right and hoping that the buyer will accept it. That’s right, you can pay out of both ears and still be forced to put the home back on the market after all this hassle. All because there’s more to a contract than money and you stepped in one of these traps.
These are just some of the reasons why there much more to a contract than just the sale price and why you should always have a contract with clear tangible contingencies. You need a great agent that puts your needs first. One that will use their experience to predict potential problems that could arise and work from the beginning to protect you.