Seeking advice on selling a house

[swampdragon]

Not having a home inspection contingency is a huge risk for the buyer - and a big score for you - if I was a buyer I would never buy a house without my own inspection and ability to negotiate/back out based on the inspection (even in the incredibly hot market I live in) - but I also live in a neighborhood where 100 year old houses are the norm - my current house (which I rent) is 170 years old

So the offer is very good because the people with the inspection would likely negotiate lowering the overall offer after inspection

an example
house lists for 400k and bidding war starts and it goes to 420k and the seller is thrilled - the realtor is happy because he sold it for more than listing and then comes the inspection where the seller agrees to to do 20k worth of repairs to make the buyer happy -
the final selling price is 420k so it makes the market look hotter (and if the realtor is sleazy/tricky they will try to grab a fee based on 420k also - but in reality the seller only gets 400k minus the realtor commission)

[chancellor]

Nicely done! And great job on not panicking after the first round.

[Teenwolf]

I need to update this thread. After doing the home inspection, the realtor for the buyers said that it went well... a week later, he got his clients to walk away somehow, saying there were suddenly major concerns from the home inspection. Slimy guy, this realtor, so I have no doubt he tried to screw us simply because he couldn't justify getting paid $9K to simply outbid the list by $8.5K. Doesn't make sense, so he needed to screw us over.

So we put the house back on the market, and we had major concerns. Apparently whenever conditional offers fall through it usually leads to lower offers in the next round of bids as people sense your desperation. We did about 20 showings the first time around, about 10 showings this time. Again we elicited 2 very interested parties. The losing bid from the first round came back, but they lowered their offer $6K below list price. We allowed them to view the home inspection report from 5 years ago, and with zero major issues, they indicated they would be putting an offer through with no home inspection required, and allow us to stay to end of Oct. Offer #2 was $4K above list, so a $10K gap, but with a Sept 24th move out date, was less ideal...

We leaned towards the lower offer for the reassurance provided by the lack of conditions, but the offer came through with home inspection included and we couldn't leave $10K on the table over a difference of 5 weeks. We'll figure something out.

At the end of the day, the 3 days I spent thinking we would accept $10K less... i wasn't feeling great about it. I felt a little bit nickel and dimed, and probably would have always had some slight regrets. I'm really glad my wife noticed the home inspection clause and very quickly switched lanes to the other bidder.

Very few hurdles left, as the offer in hand is a cash offer. I'm so relieved there won't be an appraisal coming in 10% lower than she paid for it, as the thought had terrified me. Thanks again to all those who helped advise me through this tricky scenario.

[swampdragon]

Probably because of the unknown.

Maybe because the way I was brought up. That negotiating down was the norm. List price was the max.

It used to be that houses never sold above list - now it depends on the market
currently in northern New jersey- where people are leaving NYC the market is nuts - houses are selling for stupidly high prices with buyers only seeing videos of the place - no site visits or open houses

it is even crazier than I thought - here is what 700-900k gets you - https://www.realtor.com/soldhomepric...-700000-900000

check other prices yourself - oh yeah and tax on one of these is around 20k a year

and we sold a few years and rent - before this explosion

[Gregg]

I'm curious - why?

Probably because of the unknown.

Maybe because the way I was brought up. That negotiating down was the norm. List price was the max.

[Ken]

The concept of paying more for list where I live is non existent. When I see it on those shows it angers me.

I'm curious - why?

[Gregg]

Mrs. Gregg and I watch House Hunters, and a good handful of the fix and flip shows. Some of them go for more than asking price, some are lower than asking price.

The concept of paying more for list where I live is non existent. When I see it on those shows it angers me. But in that I also realize that you do what it takes to buy and sell in the area where you live.

Right now the market is hot enough that homes are selling for list, so maybe high bidder over list is on the way?

[swampdragon]

Make sure on this-

Ask: Can the buyer truly afford your house?
Let’s say you’ve played your hand well and are now looking at several competitive offers. Keep in mind that sometimes buyers will make an offer that’s too good to be true out of desperation.

To avoid this situation, insist on a mortgage pre-approval as opposed to a mortgage pre-qualification.

Pre-qualification only determines the likelihood of qualifying for a loan. At this stage, there have been no checks on the buyer’s credit or income.

On the other hand, mortgage pre-approval is far more comprehensive and signifies that an application has been sent to a lender and the buyer’s income data and credit are under review.

[Gregg]

Here's how the negotiating went down. You take the offer with 2 days to expire and hold it as your back-up offer. Then you circle back to the more aggressive bidder with the quick expiration and counter-offer. We countered raising the offer $8.5K above ask, and it was accepted!

Such a stressful process. My wife has done an incredible job navigating buyers, lawyers, etc, but she's a much more conservative auction player than I am. She was pushing for a lower counter-offer, but I advocated for the extra $2.5K. Every little bit counts, especially only being 5 years into the mortgage.

Congrats! And well played.

Win win situation.

[Teenwolf]

Here's how the negotiating went down. You take the offer with 2 days to expire and hold it as your back-up offer. Then you circle back to the more aggressive bidder with the quick expiration and counter-offer. We countered raising the offer $8.5K above ask, and it was accepted!

Such a stressful process. My wife has done an incredible job navigating buyers, lawyers, etc, but she's a much more conservative auction player than I am. She was pushing for a lower counter-offer, but I advocated for the extra $2.5K. Every little bit counts, especially only being 5 years into the mortgage.

[Teenwolf]

Update. We did a total of 18 viewings. Only a few duds, most were very positive. Some viewers aren't serious yet, just browsing. Others were put off by competing interest, saying they didn't want to get into a bidding war. My sense of which parties were serious or not was pretty far off, but overall I think we did a good job.

Now its crunch time, negotiating offers. We came up with the bare minimum needed for a bidding war, 2 bidders (plus a tire-kicker $20K under, but i think he's likely out now). One bid list price on the nose, 2nd bid $1K over list, with 1 month earlier possession, so they're essentially equal. Now to figure out the best approach to elicit that extra $5K-$10K.

For the tire kicker, I really wanted to respond to his lowball with no words, just this clip:

[Teenwolf]

First day showing the house was pretty wild. We had 8 showings, and 5 of the 8 were extremely enthusiastic. 1 offer coming through tomorrow, plus 6-7 more showings tomorrow, which every one will know there's an offer in hand, and we could have 7-8 competing offers. Then the play is to take our best offer, let all the others know the exact offer we have in hand, and if they want to put in their best offer they have a last chance to do so. Knowing that my wife and I paid $6.8k over list price 5 years ago with only 1 other offer, I'm hoping we can push this group to over $11K above list price.

We said a few dumb things and whatnot... i forgot that I only installed weed barrier in 1 of 2 front gardens, and tried to show it in the garden where it wasn't... we tried out different sales pitches and re-used the ones that played well. It appeals to young families, especially the mothers, probably because its so clean and tidy, with modern color schemes. We spun negatives into positives: "previous owners installed high end appliances but paint was done poorly, so we've refreshed all of the paint in most of the rooms", or the room without forced air heat, only electric baseboard, where my wife claimed the convenience of keeping it closed off as a cold room in the winter to save on heat costs, and folks ate it up!

I'm really just glad my 2 days of toilet fix work is finally over. We didn't need a running 3rd toilet for 2-3 people, so when it started leaking 2 years ago we turned the water off. Glad I finally fixed it, as people were more excited about the basement bathroom than anticipated.

[TranaGreg]

Odd little tip that realtors will use...bake bread or cookies shortly before showings. Apparently trips the olfactory circuits with positive vibes. hell, nowadays, you might be able to find the scent in a spray can...

... or this time of year a colander of freshly rinsed strawberries left in the sink ... I once walked thru a house that had that & made a huge impression on me (the rest of the house didn't tho).

[Ken]

Odd little tip that realtors will use...bake bread or cookies shortly before showings. Apparently trips the olfactory circuits with positive vibes. hell, nowadays, you might be able to find the scent in a spray can...

Very true - I was looking at a home last week that smelled like a smoker lived there. We were in and out in about 2 minutes because of the bad smell.

[Hornsby]

Listed yesterday. We had been stuck on a nice round number for several days. $14K above the appraisal, but still $21K short of my ideal sell price. At the last minute we changed our minds and upped the ask price from $14K above appraisal to $24K. Many houses listed at our price or higher in the proper Mariday Park neighborhood, but few of them offering as much sq footage or updated finishing. We're selling with the approach that buyers get way more house buying where we are than comparable houses a couple of blocks further up the hill. I hope it works.

Landscaping looks impeccable, new exterior paint looks great. The listing pictures are very flattering and we got some "OMG" type comments on the Facebook listing. So far today we've booked 9 viewings. Paid a window washer to do the exterior windows, only $100 for all 19 windows and 3 doors. Hoping the little things give it that extra spit shine to create a bidding war and get that final $11K I want.

First viewings are Wednesday, and we'll be studying tip sheets until then. What to say or not, etc. I'm glad we put the work in to feel confident in our own assessment. Displaying the confidence in our ask price is our final test.

Thanks to chancellor for the suggestions. Comparable units are what pushed my price down, as listing prices have increased more visibly than final sale prices. Just have to cross my fingers and hope someone jumps. Or ideally, a few people jump. Apparently one bonus of selling privately is that you can circle back to your other interested parties and tell them what your offer is, seeking to artificially inflate the sell price. I love that option.

Odd little tip that realtors will use...bake bread or cookies shortly before showings. Apparently trips the olfactory circuits with positive vibes. hell, nowadays, you might be able to find the scent in a spray can...