Home Selling Strategies: The Seller

United Country Midwest Lifestyle Properties agents give their clients the best real estate sales technology, training, and experience. Some of life’s more important strategies play into real estate selling as well, such as remaining positive. United Country Midwest Lifestyle Properties agents coach our clients on the best home-selling strategies. Get your game face on, and let’s do this!

Remain Positive

It is important to remember that when you are ready to sell your home, you need to separate from the home emotionally. We understand that this was your castle. Many wonderful memories were made here, but you can take those memories with you to the next home and make new memories!

Keep in mind that home selling and buying can be a roller coaster ride. There are many moving parts to selling and buying, along with variables in the market and economy that influence your home sale. Keeping a positive mindset is essential. United Country Midwest Lifestyle Properties agents have experience in all real estate weather. We have you covered!

Before we list the price of your home, we talk in-depth about your bottom line- what you need to get out of your home. We give you a behind-the-scenes look into buyer strategies and price your home accordingly. 

Below are some strategies you need to remember when pricing your home. These strategies act as a cushion, wiggle room, if you will, in your listing price.

Paying for the buyer’s closing costs

The seller paying closing costs has become a popular buyer strategy. Knowing this ahead of time, we can include that in the listing price of your home. What are you paying for in closing costs? You will pay an average of 2% to 5% of the purchase price of your house. Then, below, is a small sample of what you typically pay for in closing costs:

1. Home inspection
2. Land survey, flood certification
3. Appraisal fee
4. Mortgage Origination fee
5. Recording fee
6. Notary fee

Keep in mind many buyers lack cash, so to alleviate that problem, the buyer will offer the seller MORE for their home but will ask for the cashback between their offer and the list price of your home. In essence, you give them cash to close the real estate transaction. We know this can be aggravating for the seller, as it reduces the cash you get from the sale of the home.

If we receive an offer to purchase that asks for you, the seller, to pay for the closing costs, we can politely counter that we are willing to pay for the closing costs but at an increased purchase price. This strategy may or may not work, as the bank or mortgage company may not agree to the inflated price of your home. But it’s worth a try.

Counteroffer and Rejecting the Offer

After receiving an offer to purchase from a buyer, you can either counteroffer or reject the offer. When you counteroffer, you are telling the buyer that you appreciate their offer, but they will need to consider coming up to a price you outlined in your counteroffer.

If you want to get gutsy, you can reject their offer and ask them to resubmit a new offer. If the buyer is interested, they will submit a better offer. This rejection and request to submit a new offer tells the buyer you are very confident in your property price and will not be backing down.

Remember, when you counteroffer, you engage in negotiations with a buyer. If you do not counter, you remove any ethical obligation to the buyer. 

Having this ethical obligation removed allows you to continue to pursue other offers that are coming in. It also sends a competitive message to the buyer- come with a serious offer, quick!

Counteroffer expiration

Expiration dates on food products are required. They also are an excellent strategy when sellers counteroffer. Let me explain. When a buyer submits an offer to purchase, they offer you a price for your home. You can choose to accept, counteroffer, or reject the offer. 

Once you counteroffer, you are in negotiations with that buyer. It is bad taste to entertain any other offer during this time. So, how do we keep our options open as the seller? We put an expiration date on the counteroffer. An expiration date applies pressure to the buyer and keeps the sellers free to entertain other offers.

Bidding war?

Once your home is show-ready, we can list your home on the market, accept showings, and then have an open house. We will refuse to entertain any offers until after the open house. 

Accepting offers on the house after the open house will help drive the competition to bring a serious offer, which hopefully will be high. Submitting offers after the open house may also lead to multiple offers and a bidding war. Providing you with backup offers as well!

United Country Midwest Lifestyle Properties agents are ready to help you sell your home. Helping our clients think outside the box and remaining positive throughout the home-selling experience keeps our award-winning United Country Midwest Lifestyle agents’ leaders in the real estate market.