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Seller Says I Won’t Sign a Counter Offer
How often have I heard an agent lament that her seller says I won’t sign a counter offer? How many times? I will tell you. So many times, I can pretty much predict it. This happens to me personally as a listing agent quite a bit as well. The seller says I won’t sign a counter offer because he or she is emotionally upset with the offer or terms of the purchase offer. So angry, as a matter of fact, that the seller does not want to give the buyer the pleasure of a professional reply.
I get it. Absolutely. They refuse. It’s the sellers’ right to refuse, to put her foot down firmly and say no, I won’t sign a counter offer. What that means is I have to call and explain how doing nothing guarantees a nothing outcome. People can’t respond to no response. It’s not in their makeup to put their tail between their legs and say, Oh, I’m sorry if I offended you, please look at my newly revised offer. Ha, ha, ha. Like that is gonna happen.
Ignoring a buyer’s offer is the worst thing a seller can do. Buyers want to negotiate, and they don’t know how to do it or they would not have been as insulting as their original offer. Because they don’t think how a seller will respond. Not only that, they don’t give a crap, either. They think the opposite, that if a seller ignores their offer, then the seller does not wish to negotiate much less sell the home.
Oy, oy, a Catch 22. Both stubborn parties.
My solution to when a seller says I will not sign a counter offer is to talk it out and explain why they should. I use real life examples. One from just a couple weeks ago when the seller refused to sign a counter offer and I pushed her to do it. We countered at full list price and the buyers said OK.
Trust me, the buyers would not have resubmitted an offer at full list price if we had just ignored them.
There is no “giving in” when a seller sends a counter offer to the buyer. A counter offer says your original offer is unacceptable, but here is what is acceptable to me. How is that demeaning? It’s not. It’s a position of power and strength.
So think about that the next time a seller says I will not sign a counter offer. If you’re a real estate agent, do your job by explaining exactly why a seller should sign a counter offer. Don’t just agree with the seller because you’re afraid to argue.
I tell my sellers to fight back. A lowball offer can feel like a slap in the face. Don’t turn the other cheek. Send a counter offer.
Do Not Make the Underwriter ask for Your Home Inspection
Just because buyers obtain a home inspection is no reason to send it to the lender.
I don’t go into my office very often because I work from a virtual and mobile office. But I do make a point of going to my office at least once a week to attend our weekly office meetings. That’s because I pick up new information and can share stuff with my fellow agents. I learned something interesting a few yeas ago that affect agents, sellers and buyers everywhere in the country, not just in Sacramento.
Most agents know that if their seller is not willing to pay for a pest completion, they probably should not include the requirement to pay for a pest report in a contract that is contingent upon financing. That’s because the underwriter will ask to see the pest report and will call for a completion certificate if work is required. It’s one of the reasons why some listing agents worry about a buyer doing a VA loan.
In our California purchase contracts published by C.A.R., there is a place to insert the fact that the buyer is planning to obtain a home inspection. Yup, you know where I’m going with this one. Sure enough, underwriters pick this up and often demand to see the home inspection. Not only do underwriters ask to see the home inspection but the underwriter, as a condition of loan approval, can require that the parties fix a laundry list of defects.
Even though your buyer’s agent might not include the home inspection in the purchase contract, if the seller or listing agent checks the box on the TDS that the home inspection is part of the disclosures, the lender can demand to see it.
I don’t know about every state, but in California a buyer always has the right to perform inspections pursuant to the contract and paragraph 14B1. It might not be a good idea to spell out specifically what those inspections are in the purchase contract. Because no home is perfect. Every home has defects. And if you have to hand over that list of defects to an underwriter, the seller or the buyer might be required to repair them.
I am no longer inserting nor identifying the type of inspections my buyers will perform. There’s no sense in opening a can of worms where enough worms are already crawling.
While Elizabeth is in Cuba, we revisit older blogs published elsewhere.
Are Real Estate Appliances Included With the House?
A thorn in the side of many Sacramento real estate agents is when home sellers and buyers decide to include personal property such as a refrigerator, washer or dryer in the purchase contract and make the real estate appliances included with the house. Other buyers sometimes go after after furniture. A funny story: I was guilty myself once of asking the seller in the purchase contract to give me her dining room table, and she refused. Then, when we were up against closing, she suddenly discovered the table would not fit into her new home and desperately wanted to leave the table behind.
What made you think I wanted the table? I asked, completely spacing out that I had previously demanded it. I didn’t want the table. I asked for it so I would have something to give up in exchange for a better price. Her stinkin’ table was ugly, too. I would have had to pay somebody to drag it out of the house or post it on Craigslist as a free item to the first person to come get it.
Leaving the appliances behind or taking the appliances with you is a double-edged sword. You’d think a buyer would be happy, for example, to possess a free and working washer and dryer, but not everybody is thrilled if a seller leaves behind the washer and dryer. I had a home in Elk Grove close a few weeks ago in which those appliances were not addressed in the purchase contract and the seller left them for the buyers. The buyers made a big stink and didn’t appreciate the gift. Too bad, so sad, as we used to say as kids.
On the other hand, if a buyer seriously lusts after the refrigerator, it should be noted in the purchase contract by checking the box that the refrigerator stays unless, of course, the seller doesn’t want to leave it. Then it could become the contention point during negotiations. That seller might suddenly arch her back against the ‘frig, arms spread, palms down: uh uh, this is my cheesy poof. During multiple offers, if one offer demands the refrigerator and the other does not, the seller might gravitate toward the buyer who is willing to purchase her own danged refrigerator.
Every transaction is different. If the MLS listing notes that the refrigerator stays but the seller takes it, there is not much a buyer can do about it. A buyer cannot rely on MLS notes. The court says if you want that refrigerator, you better get the transfer of that refrigerator in writing. A refrigerator is personal property, it is not a fixture and it does not automatically convey with the house.
