‘To Accept or Not Accept’ that is the million dollar question! You put your home on the market to sell it and the offer you receive is not at the full asking price, so what do you do?

STOP… STOP… STOP !!

Let’s forget about the offer price for the moment! That’s right, lock it up in a box and hide it away, in fact the best thing you can do when you receive an offer is to put your fingers in your ears and go “LA, LA, LA, LAA” as the figure is mentioned. Why? because it sets off all your emotions, happiness when its the right value and anger when it’s not.

Instead treat it like a good whodunit novel, you may get to the end and think “No Way”, but you are armed with all the facts, you have every bit of information relevant to the plot at your finger tips and that allows you to make your judgement.

THE PLAYERS:

The Purchaser (The person/people who are making the offer)

The Vendor (The decision maker)

The House (The centre of this love triangle)

The Estate Agent/Hybrid Agent (The Narrator of this story)

SETTING THE SCENE:

Although the Vendors still love their home, the time has come to move on and with a heavy heart they place it on the market. The board outside quietly catching peoples eyes as they wander on by (it’s a story !)

Until that one day the Purchaser stops outside, it’s an instant attraction. The house calls to them “Make a viewing” and with trembling fingers they dial the number on the board and arrange for a more intimate date (it’s called a viewing … and it’s still a story!)

The Purchaser falls in love, this is a match made in heaven, but the Vendor is reluctant to let go. The Purchaser calls to the house and pulls it towards them, the Vendors stamp their foot down and pull it back. Two sets of emotions running wild, their only aim is to get exactly what they want and then the war commences.

THE WEAPON OF CHOICE:

Constant ‘Low Offer Trauma’ – an ongoing battering of the Vendor, in the vain hope they will succumb to the Purchasers demands.

THE ONLY SUSPECT:

That’s right, there is only one suspect here and that is the NARRATOR  …. dun ..dun ….duuun (or use your own suspense music reference).

The reason we locked away the offer price and hid it, is because it is the last thing you want to know about. There is a story to be told here and it is the Narrators who must tell it, to give the Vendors every bit of information and allow the Vendor to make the decision based on fact and not emotion.

THE STORY:

Every Vendors story is different and the Narrator is the only one who has access to the Purchasers story – if their stories match in many ways there is a fair chance of compatibility.

THE FACTS #1:

The Purchaser is either proceedable or they are not (by that I mean they are in a position to buy or they are not).

Proceedable – First Time Buyer, Cash Buyer, No Property to Sell, Sold Subject to Contract

Unable to Proceed – Not on the Market, On the Market but Not Sold.

Normally a Vendor will want a Purchaser in a position to go, but there are occasions where there is no immediate rush and the Vendor is prepared to wait, dependant on the rest of the facts.

THE FACTS #2:

When does the Purchaser need to move by? If the Purchaser is currently in rented accommodation then there may well be a timescale involved and that’s the same with Sold Subject to Contract because they are in a chain. The Narrator my offer the following statement “The Purchasers are happy to move at the Vendors timescale” – it sounds wonderful but is rarely the case.

THE FACTS #3:

Finance – it sounds quite basic “Can the Purchaser afford the House or not?”, no one wants to be 4 weeks down a property transaction to find that the purchasers have been refused a mortgage, or that the CASH is locked into an account for the next 10 months, or that the CASH was coming from the sale of shares and the stock market just crashed. The Narrator has all this information or can gather it from sources such as Financial Advisors or Solicitors.

RECAP:

1. What position are the Purchasers?

2. What is their timescale?

3. Can they afford the House?

THE FACTS #4:

If the Vendors are happy with the above, then the Narrator can move on to opening the box! THE OFFER !! Whether the offer is exactly what the Vendor wanted, higher than the Vendor thought or lower, the Narrator has handed over all the facts to allow the Vendor to make a decision based on fact and not emotion.

1. The Right Offer – Accept and Proceed.
2. A Higher Offer – Accept and Proceed.
3. A Low Offer – Either Decline and renegotiate or see if there is another House to be purchased and that the same reduction could be passed on.

THE NARRATOR:

I can not wax lyrical enough about a good Narrator, they are the authors of the story, they do all the leg work to ensure the facts contained within are correct. They can turn a disaster novel into a fairy tale.

I am aware that some of you will sell via Hybrid Agents (Online if you prefer) and each one of those companies works in a different way, however you receive the offer (by email or phone call) please, please, please ensure you have the answers to FACTS 1, 2 and 3 before even getting excited by an offer. We live in an age of ‘click and buy’ – The House is not a £20.00 kettle and deserves to be treated with the respect it commands.