subject: Home Sellers - Evaluating Problems Raised By Buyers [print this page] Home Sellers - Evaluating Problems Raised By Buyers
You've put the property up on the market and are getting interest from potential buyers. In fact, one has made an offer you find generally acceptable, but has raised some problems regarding the home in it. What do you do?
Let's start off with a basic fact. No home is absolutely perfect. Not even a new home. There is always something that is a bit out of place, aged or even damaged. Welcome to life. As a seller, the key is to evaluate whether problems raised by buyers are really an issue and then, if so, how much it is going to run you to have the problems fixed. You can pay for the fix directly or credit the seller, but don't go nuts.
Many buyers clean up when it comes to identify problems. In one situation, a seller finally had an offer after waiting for four months. The buyer, however, noted the sprinkler system for the property was rotted and need to be repaired. The seller was trying to determine if he would agree to the $25,000 the buyer was asking for the repair.
$25,000!
For a sprinkler system!
After I finally stopped laughing, I asked the seller if the buyer was going to redo the sprinkler system or build a water slide park in the backyard. Now, was the buyer really going to spend $25,000 on sprinklers? Probably not. Instead, the buyer was trying to suck money out the back end to get a better deal and probably do other repairs. In response, the seller offer to do the actual repairs and the buyer dropped the demand.
When selling your home, it is vital that you realize there will be problems that need to be addressed. It can be easy to panic in a market like the current one and just accept whatever the buyer asks for. Don't! Get objective bid and go from there.
