There’s no way to control the outcome of your sale, but you can take a few steps to build a safety net for your transaction. There are several things that occur after you and the buyer have a signed around contract that could trip things up for you. Know ahead of time what they are and you can mentally and sometimes strategically prepare in advance.
When Is It Sold?
The biggest mistake people make after they accept an offer on their home and sign a contract is to stop advertising and slap up a SOLD sign! Don’t do it. Your home is not sold until you’ve completed the escrow process. Both parties have to sign closing documents AND the buyer’s loan has to have funded. Keep up the advertising and don’t use the “S” word until closing is completed. When your buyer sees you continue to market for back up offers, it’s like holding their feet to the fire. They tend to be the squeaky wheel with their lender and keep pushing their “people” to move their end of the transaction along quickly.
Be wary of agreeing to stop marketing your home after you have accepted an offer. Some buyers may ask for this, but it is not in your best interest. If it’s a deal-breaker and the buyer insists, request a pretty hefty non-refundable earnest money deposit. It’s asking an awful lot for you to take your home off the market for four to six weeks (or more) with no guarantee that the buyer won’t back out and take their earnest money. In that amount of time, seasons could change and you could lose the peak marketing time for your area and be stuck advertising your home in the slowest months of the year.
Create A Safety Net
Continue to show your home. At this point it’s easiest to funnel people into one or two slots per week and treat it like an open house. When interested buyers or agents call about the home, let them know you have a buyer that’s made an offer and ask them if they want to be contacted if it falls through. Again, explain all of this with out using the word “SOLD.” You want to build up this list as much as you can. It’s your safety net. Buyers lose their jobs, lenders change the rules and previously qualified buyers suddenly don’t qualify any more under the new rules. You never know, and you don’t want to learn this part the hard way.
Should you be fortunate enough to get a backup offer, realize that as more time goes on, the chances that your backup offer finds something else and moves on increases. One backup offer still isn’t enough to completely breath easy. Keep up your marketing. When is it sold? When everything is signed around AND funded!
The buyers inspection and appraisal are two things that can trip up your transaction. Do your homework ahead of time with regard to your pricing and condition of the home. It’s devastating to get this far into a transaction and find out the home won’t appraise or discover major repairs need to be done. Solid third party confirmation of the value and condition of your home with a certified appraisal and independent home inspection will help ease the anxiety of the inspection and appraisal period of the escrow process.
Selling your own home is not that difficult or complicated when you work with professionals. Architectural photographers, inspectors, appraisers, attorneys along with title & escrow staff are all meant to be part of a team of people that you assign different responsibilities to. Trust your team of experts and continue marketing your home until closing is completed and the buyer’s loan had funded.
Jill McIntire has been active in For Sale By Owner Marketing since 1998 and is an instructor with By Owner University, where you can learn more for sale by owner strategies.
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