Getting an Offer on Your Home: How to Protect Your Equity
Getting an offer on your home is exciting and stressful but we’re only halfway there! Reaching the closing table with your equity intact is the final hurdle. We focus on a Contract Defense Strategy designed to manage the critical 30-day gap between ratification and closing.
We will review the offer for the price and terms, send a counter back to the buyer for anything that you want to change. There may be a few rounds back and forth ironing out details, but once all parties agree on all the terms, the contract is now ratified. The clock starts ticking on several parallel processes.
The buyers will begin securing their mortgage, obtaining homeowners insurance, and scheduling the home inspection and appraisal. You need to keep your home free of any additional liens and provide HOA or condo documents if you’re in an association.
What is a Home Inspection Like for Sellers?
Rather than waiting for a buyer’s repair list, we conduct a Strategic Seller’s Walkthrough with you to identify and neutralize common ‘red flags’ before the inspector ever walks through the door – protecting you from ‘nickel and dime’ credit requests.
After the buyer completes their inspection, they’ll send you a list of requested repairs or ask for a credit toward closing costs instead. Here’s the reality: unless the buyer is walking away or being completely unreasonable, it’s almost always better to negotiate and move forward. Why?
The Current Offer on Your Home is Usually Better than a Hypothetical Future Offer
And here’s the kicker: once the inspection report is delivered to you, everything in it is now officially “disclosed.” If you go back on the market, you are required to disclose those issues to every future buyer.
Get Ahead of Common Inspection Issues
You can eliminate many inspection requests before they happen. Have your HVAC serviced and save the receipt. Change the filter. Caulk any gaps in bathroom tile and shower surrounds. Replace burned-out light bulbs. Check that all smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are working.
Small fixes now prevent negotiation leverage later.
What if My House Doesn’t Appraise?
We don’t leave your value to chance. We prepare a comprehensive Appraisal Packet for every listing, curated with comparable sales and itemized upgrades to major systems like the roof or HVAC to defend your contract price before the appraiser even arrives.
Some appraisers appreciate the guidance. Others bristle at it because they think we’re telling them how to do their job. Either way, we still send a comprehensive appraisal packet for their consideration.
If the appraisal comes in below contract price, you have options. And none of them require you to immediately cave and drop your price.
First, we can challenge it. If there are stronger comparable sales the appraiser didn’t use, we can request reconsideration of value. It’s not the easiest path, but it works more often than you’d think.
Second, the buyer can switch lenders. This gives us a fresh appraiser and a second chance. Now that we know which comps the first appraiser used, we can proactively explain why those aren’t appropriate and provide better alternatives.
Third, if neither option works, the gap between appraised value and contract price is still negotiable. Buyer and seller can split the difference. The buyer can cover it entirely. Or yes, the seller can reduce. Nothing is automatic.
Finding the Right Agent to Navigate This
This process has a lot of moving parts – and a lot of places where the wrong move costs you money.
