Moving to Brevard County Florida: What does a home seller do when an offer is received within the first few days?

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

What does a home seller do when an offer is received within the first few days?

There must be something wrong if an offer comes in the first few days or week of listing a home for sale, right?   The short answer: NO.

When a seller puts their home on the market the exact date and arrival time of an acceptable offer is unknown. It could be one day, thirty days, ninety days or never.

So what should a seller do if an offer comes in right away?   Does it mean the house was obviously way overpriced because there is already an offer?

Sometimes it is a matter of plain luck that the right buyer walks into a seller's home in week one. In an area like central Florida (Brevard County) we get a lot of folks relocating to Florida for retirement or a change of employment.   The fact that someone shows up at just the right time could be pure coincidence (albeit a great one)!

[Could it be your Brevard County, Florida real estate agent prepared a very efficient targeted marketing campaign that brought results right away.]
I suggest sellers start with an examination of their intended goals. Specifically,

How much did the seller think they would realistically get for their home?
How long did the seller expect to wait to sell?

A few points to consider about offers to purchase a home.

Ponder the price carefully. How does the closing date fit into the seller's time table? How clean is the offer? Is the buyer well qualified?
Will there be a higher offer later? There is no guarantee that a higher offer will come in.- ever. And if a higher price does come in later what is the real benefit to the price increase? What is the cost of carrying a mortgage plus the other associated costs like insurance, association fees, taxes, etc.?
Consider the impact of delaying a sale on your personal and family situation. A slightly higher price may net a few thousand or more but no one knows for sure if and when the offer will come. If the family has already relocated is the separation and added stress worth it? Or what about the disruptions to a seller's lifestyle?

As an experienced Brevard County, Florida real estate agent I have seen this from both sides of the transaction. I have worked with sellers who rejected the first offer only to eventually take their house off the market or sell at a lower price than the first offer. I have had seller's agents call me to ask if my buyers still wanted the house after the offer was rejected months earlier.

The thing about buyers and rejected offers...they keep looking and eventually find a house to buy.

So what does a seller do when that offer comes in? Just like any offer it must be evaluated based on their intended goals because they (or their agent) never know what may come next week, next month or whenever.