In the first two parts of this story we looked at the contingencies a Buyer has once you have accepted an offer and your house enters escrow. As a Seller, what can you do to insure this contingency period goes smoothly, while eliminating any of the potential concerns a Buyer may have about completing the purchase?

The first thing you must do is detach yourself emotionally from your house. Easier said than done, right? Imagine you are in the market to purchase a home. What would somebody remenber after visiting your house? The National Association of Realtors did a survey on people who purchased a house and found that a potential Home Buyer will look at up to eight homes in a search that can last up to eleven weeks, before making an offer. Will yours stand out or easily be forgotten?

If there are little annoyances around the house that bother you, they should be corrected because they surely will irritate someone else. Some Home Sellers are opting to have their own home inspection, before the house hits the market. That way you can be alerted to any potential problems that might arise. The other side of this coin is that if an inspector were to find a problem or situation that needs to be corrected or demands additional investigation it should be disclosed, if not corrected, to a potential Buyer. It may then become a material fact, which you as a Seller do have an obligation to disclose. If it was corrected, I believe you should disclose the issue and what you did to rectify it.

Okay, now we have looked at our very own house through the eyes of a potential Buyer and we have corrected the items that needed repair. What else can we do?

I believe it’s best to plan for and address potential issues before they surface. As a Seller, you can write language into the counter offer that reduces the time a Buyer has for their Inspection Contingency from seventeen days to either seven or ten days. Another thought is to have language that completes the Home Inspection within five days, so that if the Buyer’s change their mind, you can get your home back on the market much more quickly.

Selling a home is like anything else, the better prepared you are, the better your chances for success. A painter doesn’t just go out and open a can of paint, and start painting. They sand the surface, patch holes, clean the excess debris, put a coat of primer on and then paint.

The goal is to get top dollar for your house, so you must take the appropriate steps to insure its success. Otherwise you will find that you have only one negotiating tool in your belt and that is the “Sales Price”. In that case you may be disappointed, simple because the price paid is reflective of the condition of the property.