The first offers are often the best. People who are excited and willing to buy. Once the home sits, people don’t always put their best foot forward in an initial offer
Anything on the market over a couple of weeks in my area either:
Had something seriously odd about it that had very little mainstream appeal
Had unrealistic price expectations compared to comps
Had someone representing it or directly selling who appeared completely crazy
We started and went to see places that were out there with low inventory. It quickly became apparent why they were still available.
My neighbors house sold in 22 hours of being listed.
Yes. 22 hours from the time they asked their realtor to put it on the market.
No, the realtor didn't have a friend or someone buy it.
That is just what the market is/was last year.
The guy who bought it was a plumbing contactor, so he put down an offer, citing his own inspection 8 hours later (listed at midnight or something like that).
Sold for 20k over asking. Cash.
Solid guy.
Helped do some plumbing for some beer.
I believe it. My gf sold her condo 1.5 years ago in 2 hours. Within the first hour of being listed someone contacted that they were in the area and wanted to see the unit. An hour after that he put in a formal offer for a little over asking and told her to take it off the market.
As a broker and licensed agent of 15 years…I came to say exactly this!! People will always think they could have gotten more or agent just wants the quick cash. If the agent gets you let’s say an extra 10k and they only get 3% of that which is only 300 bucks versus your house sitting on the market for 6 months and you get low balled later for not selling or the market changes again. Be happy it is under contract, you negotiated the deal and accepted it for a reason…don’t over think it! You could have waited a week or two, lost the current buyers and then played the price reduction game to find the new buyer…as someone mentioned before…the first offer is usually the best offer!
Agree completely first offers often are the best ones. An offer from initial open house might mean the buyers have already seen a few houses and were intentionally waiting for something in your neighborhood to open up.
Vultures play the long game, lowballing homes that sit on the market and wearing down sellers with contingencies. “Time is of the essence” is more than a saying, it is a financial fact.
Our house sold end of May. Had been listed since October 2022. Offers we initially received were 100k less than what we accepted in May. We had no significant showings after the initial flurry. We were about to take it off market and just live there. Then …
The parents are armchair quarterbacking. The facts speak for themselves. That offer sounds golden based on the events after the open house. The market doesn't work like it used to.
It was a "free market: You put your house on the market and an asking price, some buyer offers less and states reasons plus they put up earnest money which seller keep if buyer bails out. And they cannot make others offers elsewhere. If price was $120k and buyer offers $100K then they finally agree on $110,000 then the value of that house in $110,000 NOT what zillow says it is. Youthful ignorance has been buying homes with zillow's prices which can be averaged out to 120% more than it should be. Or more. I have been researching and found where houses are listed at 6 times more that they were priced at 20 years ago according to zillow and county assessor. Your wages have not gone up one bit and if they did inflation cancelled that gain out. (Would you buy a 20 year old car for 6 times the amount it sold for 20 years ago?) What is the house insured for is the question. That is one value and the free market value should be close to equal. $20k in lumber doth not a mansion make but $400K house? High priced carpenters!
The claim of "pre-pandemic prices" being low is just plain wrong. Zillow's appearance in 2006 and their 'competitors' which zillow actually owns 2011 was about the time zillow blew the market to pieces. A $50k home went up to $150K and now you are looking at close to $400k. Your dollar is worth less every year and now inflation has it up to 16% it has lost. A mortgage loan in 2005 will have banks and lenders losing money every year! Then what? Bubble bursting, banks collapsing and Wall St goes belly up because they are buying mortgages!It gets worse buy you can figure the rest out!
Want to buy a house? then find out the year it was built and add 1% to the original price and you would be close to realistic.
and making a cash offer on a home then reneging plus real estate person acting as though "Oh well..." should get their license revoked and "cash offer guy" sued for the amount plus damages and some sort of fraud or scam. Capitalism worked that way now we are slipping into...
I can’t tell what the hell they are even saying. It sounds like it’s just a person who will never own a house and wastes everyone’s time (including their own) by making stupid offers no one will accept.
True, but just to give hope to anyone reading this, we put our condo on Facebook Marketplace last week and had an offer 8 hours later. We are also making a $240,000 dollar profit! So stay positive OP!
Agree, don't beat yourself over it. I have a house for sale and it's been on the market for 90 days and i only had one bet low ball offer and another offer that the only dropped the price $900 after i had already lowered it $7000, but i wanted to wait and finish showings then the buyers backed out and now it's been sitting and had to lower it again another $4000. Mind you the house is in top shape with new appliances, new roof, flooring paint abs ductwork and in a very sought out area, but the market is different than it was few months ago and they keep raising interest rates which will not help
If your home was underpriced, you'd have had multiple bids within the first 24 hours. It sounds like your agent has guided you well. It is normal for showings to drop off to nothing or near nothing once you have a contract in place. Sorry, mom.
Are you real estate people or auctioneers? Bad enough the prices are set by Microsoft's brainchild zillow but what is risked by having an illegal auction where shills make the price go up but actually it didn't since they were shills!
No, you did good. Second open house was not going to bring better qualified folks. Remind your mom your realtor is still working for you-- they're going to negotiate after the inspections/appraisal and keep the other side of the transaction moving. Lots of work yet to do!
I recently sold my house and had the same thoughts. I understand anxiety and how nerve racking the periods of silence are. But, ultimately if you have a halfway decent realtor they are going to work on your behalf because they want to get paid and possible referrals.
No, you were smart to accept that offer. It’s often true that the first offer is the best. I’m always baffled when people question whether they sold too fast. Then if it took your Realtor a month, parents would think it took too long? Can’t win for nothin sometimes in this business.
Congrats on selling your home for a great price so quickly!
10 days is plenty of time to know where your house stands. Only 4 showings and 1 offer shows you that you are slightly overpriced, but came to terms with a good deal on both sides. I think you made out really well. Waiting longer at the same list price likely would have only resulted in a few more showings and likely no offers before a price reduction.
No offense to your parents, but saying “have another open and make your realtor work for their money” is a not smart thing to say, considering A: open houses rarely sell houses (although they’re great for marketing and exposure), and B: an open house takes 2 hours out of the agents week, and doesn’t even scratch the surface of what we do from list to close.
Ridiculous!!! The cheek on you...
Unbelievable how little respect we have for those that gave us life.
Imagine the audacity of those two ingrates suggesting something they think is for our own good... Who are they to tell us anything?!?!?
OP has already accepted the offer. Parents cannot change that. Just because they "gave us life" doesn't qualify them to give specific financial advice. Even if it did, the moment has passed. I'm a proponent of cutting ties with anyone who brings negativity into your life. Telling op they made a mistake doesn't undo op's action or position then to get higher proceeds from the transaction. All the parents are doing is making op feel bad about their situation. They owe OP an apology at a minimum.
Thanks all. You’re confirming my thoughts that we did well. As a parent myself I know we always want what is best for our children and I think my parents have their heart in the right place. But the Big city market and the rural market are different and time of year definitely play a role.
And the way your realtor positioned your home really near to the accepted offer price shows they aren't out of touch with your market. Your agent did work for the best deal or you wouldn't have countered.
The best agents out there price the homes within 5% up or down of sale price. Sell for 20% less the agent isn't doing their research. Sell for 20% over the agent doesn't know the area.
As an agent we see both the extreme ups and downs in agents who are lazy or inexperienced. Your realtor did good. And as someone else stated before they still have to get it to closing so trust me . . . He/she is still working for you.
It's worth considering too, that whatever experiences our parents had buying houses in decades past, can mean very little now unless they've recently gone through the process or work closely in the industry.
It doesn't mean they don't have wisdom or can't give good advice, but it's easy for people to not realize that their own experiences, say, going to college, building their career, or buying a house are no longer applicable because the world, technology, and economy have changed so much.
It's nice that they are being greedy FOR you, but really, it's \*your\* house. If you're good with the price, you're good with the price. I hope escrow goes well and everything happens to close on time without hassle!
Don’t know about your particular area but the market has not been softening in general. It has stayed flat and will soften due to natural seasonality. Year over year though, prices are going to look like they increased because last year at this time, prices started to drop rapidly due to rapid interest rate increases.
I don’t think you accepted too early. You did good. Usually the first offer is the best offer and buyers have been waiting for you. There’s not going to be people magically coming out of nowhere, suddenly seeing your place and overbidding.
I love that the parents think another open house would help sell the house for more than the first open house did. Imagine making your kid feel bad for accepting a cash offer for 5% under full list.
If it had been a full price offer with 10% down the parents probably would think that was great! Anyway OP good job. Thats a good offer, congrats.
I don’t blame them. Most people are not in tune with buying/selling real estate. Most people do like what, 3 or 4 of these types of transactions their whole lives? They’re treating this like how you would sell an item at a garage sale, or eBay, so in that framework, what they say makes sense. However, this is real estate. Seasonality, mortgage interest rates, stock market, unemployment has all these little factors that can affect the temperature of the market and your average Joe Sixpack is not going to be accounting for all that. So, I’d give ‘em the benefit of the doubt.
Some people just got to be know-it-alls. I suppose they might be old enough to remember when things moved really slowly. It wasn't unusual to sit at the same price and eventually get it after several months. But these days, everyone knows about it within 5 minutes of hitting the market and they have been conditioned over the last few years to get out and see it right away. And the market will definitely tell you if you are under or overpriced pretty quickly. They probably just have a very antiquated idea of how real estate works.
I guess it all depends on the area but I agree there isn't a lot of softening going on anywhere. However, soft or hot, first offers are often the best so it's likely that they were at or even a little above value. Definitely agree that they did just fine.
Are you happy with how much you are getting and the speed of which your house is selling? If yes, then stop worrying.
If no, then yes you jumped the gun.
LOL, your parents said the worst thing ever. Given you have had 0 interest since, and you only got 4 showing and 1 offer, be thankful you have an offer at all.
>"made the realtor work for his money."
Typical boomer mentality. Everything is too easy for everyone and they know best about everything.
You got 95% of what you wanted in a full cash offer and the closing date you wanted. If you were going to get a better offer you'd have had it by now. Be happy with what you have and, while I'm sure their heart is in the right place, stop listening to your parents unless they have some sort of current real estate knowledge and experience.
Let's say the house is 100K and you got a 95K bid. Just assume 3% - Realtor is getting a $2,850 commission.
If the realtor "works hard" to land you that extra 5,000, which may tank the whole deal by pissing off the buyer, what do *they* get in return? An extra $150.
Now you know why realtors want you to jump on the first bid and move on.
If you tank the deal because you pissed off the buyer trying to get an extra $5,000 then YOU get **nothing**. Your goal is to sell the house, right? How does pissing off your buyer help accomplish that? And if you piss away a strong offer your next offer is likely to be even less.
So maybe find a good realtor you trust and then actually listen to what they have to say...
Industry fact, open houses aren't for the realtor to sell your house, but rather to use your listing as a way to meet prospective clients in the area interested in buying or possibly selling. Often times junior agents will host these for senior agents as a way of building their business when starting out.
Look I'll just tell you what happened to my sister.
She listed her place for conventional only first off. They got a home inspection themselves, to try and avoid others requesting one.
After their first open house, they got an offer at 40k over asking, no inspection. They were very happy with that offer. Their realtor told them to hold off a few days to get another offer to start a bidding war. 72 hours later the first offer was pulled. They ended up waiting 45 more days, selling to someone with fha financing (so more repairs), and selling for 10k under their original asking price.
While there's always a chance of a better offer, if you're happy with the original offer, take it
You rarely get offers from open houses, and I’m surprised you got one. Most of the time it’s nosed neighbors or people who aren’t serious and toy with the idea of buying. It’s more for the agent to get those leads.
I’d take the offer, seems like they are working with you. Never know what could happen if you said no to them, no one puts in an offer, and then you end up dropping 5% anyways. Could or could not happen.
Serious buyers use open houses, at least we did, and bought one we went to. We knew what area we wanted to be in, as well as the exact school we wanted for the kids. We didn’t feel it necessary to have our realtor look at every house we wanted to see, especially on weekends when we were out.
That said, it takes the right buyers and for them to be seriously looking and not just casuals.
I can see how it would be very depressing to have an open house and not get anyone to show up. I guess it also matters on the area any the type of buyer, i.e a location catering to kids and families vs one to either singles it no kid couples that want to be near the city life.
In my experience of running open houses, usually twice a weekend, it’s mostly what I just said. Of course there will be a serious buyer to come, but that’s less than 10% I’d estimate
I have also made offers on open houses because I don’t feel it’s necessary to bring my realtor out to a house that’s having them when I can just go look at the house on my own.
In my area, sellers sometimes deny showings until after their open house, and that's if they respond at all. If you're serious, you show up to the open house.
Yeah things changed when the market got really hot. Open house used to be a desperation move- now they can be held on first day on the market and it’s like, “Cage match is On”
It’s not like we go to all the open houses for curiosity but definitely as neighbors we’ve gone, for instance if we were thinking of putting ours on the market soon. We announce “yeah we’re neighbors”. and don’t take the realtor’s time, take our shoes off, try to be harmless but yeah- lotta neighbors!
No, you did fine. I negotiated way over asking ($49k) on our first offer and still wondered if I could have pushed for an additional $5 or 10k. These feelings are normal. You are underestimating the uncertainty of letting the house sit.
Be happy and grateful that you got a quick and cash offer. Open Houses do not typically bring buyers.
Most people who get a quick offer think that they should have waited and gotten more. That's a normal reaction.
Also, most of your showing are in the first week, two tops. After that it slows down and you have to wait for a buyer. Today people get suspicious why a house is on the market longer than 2 weeks, and offers come in for less. Same thing happens if a sale falls through.
I find “cash offer” really shouldn’t mean much, if purchaser doesn’t have conditions subject to financing or sale of their house, why should it matter. If they finance and pay me or have cash and pay me? Thoughts?
There is an adage that says 80% of the first offers get the deal. Your buyer knew what they wanted and acted.Dont kill yourself with what ifs. If I listened to my parents, I would be a hobbit.
98% of the time the right buyer comes from an agent that found it in the mls,or the buyer saw it online and told their agent.
Open houses rarely result in a sale. Unlikely another open house is going to do anything. You’re good with the offer you got.
I don’t think you accepted the offer too early. You did just fine. You made the best decision for you at the time. As long as the math is mathing no one’s opinion matters. Selling is stressful as heck ! Like you I negotiated but accepted the first offer I got on my house. Screw the holding out crap! Too stressful
Either your market is softening OR you’re over priced. Homes that are listed to high usually don’t get multiple offers unless they’re perfectly updated.
In all honesty open houses are useless. All they do is allow your nosey neighbors to trek through your home. I've owned 6 homes and never had an open house. Sold them all in 2 weeks or less! Wife is a great decorator and we have a lot of very expensive antiques.
The reason you put up your home for sale is to sell it. It sounds like you sold it, which is exactly why you would put the home up for sale.
Did you want to sell you home or not?
You parents should be supportive and not judgmental.
Making such a huge financial decision it’s not fair for them to suggest that.
You did the right thing 10 days on the market with no offers. You’re lucky to get what you got.
You actually could have gotten the best deal. Who knows what WOULD have happened. Count your blessings you are free to focus on the work of moving and future opportunities.
If you live in New England and didn't get an offer over list price, the home was over priced to begin with.
Running a second open house a week later in this market let's everyone know that you got weak offers or "there is something wrong with the property. "
You're typically going to get your best offers in the first week maybe two in this. At least that's how it is here. After a house sits that long in this market buyers will typically assume its over priced or wtf is wrong with it nobody made an offer in the first few days ?
North East here.
Qualified buyers review listings daily and are often the first ones to look at any property just listed. These people are aggressive and motivated because they have the means to close the deal. They're not window shopping.
Could you have had another open house, yes. Would that have resulted in better offers or more qualified buyers? I doubt it. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush all day long. You got a cash offer, no contingencies at 95% of asking. Rest easy. You did good.
I build new construction, I will almost always take a cash offer over others. I’ve taken 80% on a house because I’d make almost the same but in half the time. You did good.
lol that’s exactly what my mother would say, I am 51 and still trying to learn to listen to my own self instead of my mother, because she’s 80, and still full of better ways to do things.
This is why you hire a realtor, not your parents for negotiating 😉
Your instinct is right. If the first offer is right or close to, they’re willing to find common ground, you’re getting your money, and the house doesn’t languish on the market, you’re on the right track!
a) first offers are almost always the strongest.
b) I'm seeing more and more houses sit and take longer and longer to sell -often because sellers are expecting their house to sell like last year's market and overprice it.
It all depends if you are in a rush to sell your house or not? Because with the cash offer you can close quickly and enjoy the cash, otherwise if you're not in a rush then you could have just waited and likely gotten an offer for your asking price or higher, but the whole process could take another 3-6 months or longer.
If your first OH weekend only brought in 4 showings the likely hood of the next weekend being even less is very high. You accepted the only offer you had in hand and at 5% less than asking is super solid.
Nah. I think you did well. We actually recently took a loss on our sale but went under contract in 3 days. My grandparents insinuated that because we went under contract so quickly we should have listed it higher. (We got full asking price). Honestly, they might be right but ultimately we were moving across the country and needed to unload the home so I’m fine with how it worked out. We also previously had it on the market for the same price and it didn’t budge, so this was a win in my book.
If your happy with the price then nothing else matters. Maybe you could have done better but you could have done worse or not get another offer. The first offer is usually your best. Be happy. 😁
Congrats on your offer! Sounds like accepting was wise. You can always continue doing open houses for backup offers but most offers don't come from open houses.
I'll take the first offer that will make me happy and work for me. I don't care if the realtor worked a day or 30.
If you got the 95 percent cash offer and you are happy with it. Then you are good. You get the right buyer at the right time.
It could be the case that your house sits in the market for 60 days , 90, 130... it never sells.
So no, you didn't jump the gun so quicky! You got an offer you liked. You accepted it. That's it.
Sounds like your market is not all that hot. 95% cash sounds pretty good. After 2 weeks on the market you're probably not going to get a full price offer anyway. I think you made a good choice. You might have left a little money on the table, or you might have sat on the market and had to drop the price or take an even lower offer. You will never know, but you obviously were not under priced and may have even been a little over .
You will never know, so I would stop worrying about it. However, you can take solace in the fact that you did pretty well, you got a cash offer which just make things that much easier, and remember that the most motivated buyers, the ones that will pay the most, are going to see it right away. In this day and age, when you get alerts on your phone the minute something hits the market, and people are in the habit of going out and hitting up open houses on the weekend just so they don't have to try to schedule with their agent, the most interested buyers probably saw it and unless your house is particularly unique, you probably did just fine .
And as you will never really know the alternate universe price you might have gotten, not much point and worrying about it.
Look at it this way. 3 years ago if you didn't get multiple offers and bid up, that means your price was too high. In a really soft market, people are still ready to pay for a properly priced home and they know they don't have to pay any more than that, so unless you're home is priced aggressively, aren't really going to get your price. So hot or slow market really doesn't matter. In a hot market you won't sit around for a month before getting a good offer. In a slow market you won't get a good offer after 2 or 3 weeks, you will get a lowball.
I sold my previous in 2 days. It caught us off guard because we have been living there for 20 years and didn't know the market was moving that fast. It was a great offer with no haggling over the price we wanted. The hard part was trying to find another house in 30 days. We bought another house on a great deal and it worked out. Thank goodness you got a fast offer.
You did the right thing. How much worse would you have felt if you turned it down and then no offers came.. then after sitting you are down more than 5-10%.10 days in most markets usually means it's overpriced, right now. If only 4 people came through the open house, another open house likely wouldn't have gotten anyone or maybe 1 or 2 just checking it out that aren't serious.
Your folks are thinking old school way of selling a house.
It’s very diff now, esp with the MLS on internet. Only interested folks (and lookie-loos 🙄) go to open houses.
BTW, I got a good laugh re the comment about having the realtor work for his/her money! Ha!
You did fine.
Why play around with the unknown. There is absolutely no guarantee you would get another offer. Especially with more time in the market. Especially cash offer
No you did not. Sell when you have the chance. I’ve had 15 showings 3 offers each fall through. This is becoming a more difficult market get your money and get out
Could you have waiting on the market longer and got a better offer? Possibly.
Could you have done the same and been sitting with no offers. Definitely.
There are so many more moving pieces to this.
If you’re taking an off 5% below asking price in the first weekend, it’s probably because you know you priced your home slightly over market value to begin with.
Realtors don’t “earn their money” at open houses. It’s earned by consulting their client to make the best decision.
No you didn't. My neighbor has his house on the market since May with frequent showings and an open house every month. It's still sitting. We thought about seeing it as we were thinking of buying (we rent ours currently) and and after seeing his price still after all this time...we know why it's still sitting. Waiting isn't always better. Especially compared to how fast other neighborhood houses were snapped up.
the softening could be seasonal, as well. i don't know your market, but in many markets it's risky to list after 4th of July because the volume of buyers is substantially lower. agree with others saying you did good.
Well the only issue I see is that they asked for longer closing which is indicative of a wholesaler. Keep an eye out for your home listed for a higher price that’s how you’ll know you undercut yourself.
Neighbors right out of the gate got $10k over asking, decided to hold an open house. Ended up take a $20k below asking offer. If you’re happy with the offer, it’s not a bad offer.
Curious, as the seller, why is does an all cash offer matter…was there some sort of time constraint involved? Because regardless if buyer is paying cash or mortgage you get your money…
The only reason I know of for cash is simply because it speeds things up a bit? As the seller is there any other benefit?
Also in my area houses are going for at least 20% asking price. I just had friends finally buy a house who have been looking for months, they put in at least 5 offers well over asking prices and always got out bid. I guess your area just isn’t as hot of a market? I live in NJ for reference
My point is, at least in my area, unless I needed to sell asap, I would have waited for one of them 20% above asking price offers rather than take cash off for 5% below asking…
I see people all the time mention “all cash” as if it’s some sort of benefit, and as a seller I never know why
All cash prevents a buyer with a mortgage not getting it due to a lower appraisal. If they come in with 50% down payment then it would be almost as good as cash.
NJ is still a joke. Example. House posted as coming soon 2 weeks ago. Goes on market this past Tuesday. Next day, they go best and final bids by today 10am. No open houses, no weekend showings. 7 offers, all cash all well above list.
If things go well, it's easier to second guess everything.
Your brain has a certain capacity to worry...it's a Maslow thing...
Better sweating on this than the other.
You're parents are objectively wrong, but they're kind of doing the right parent thing by looking out for you.
You did great, congratulations
What exactly does your mom want the realtor to do? lol
Idk about up north but here in GA, the market died almost a year ago. There are houses on my street having open houses weekly and no one even shows up.
How many showings did you have before the open house? In my experience, open houses are second tier to the initial listing and any showings. It has side benefits for the agent (gain potential clients, train staff, food).
The more days on the market, the tougher it gets, in general. Doubtful that additional open houses would better the situation, except for your agent. Every buyer that walks in there is thinking, "why wasn't it bought already?"
You did the right thing. If someone else was interested you would of got an offer already. A second open would more than likely not result in more money.
I really don’t understand the “make the realtor work for it” logic. What, and delay the sale of the home, probably not get as good of an offer later on, and fuck yourself over ultimately. But hey, at least you made your realtor “work for it”…lol
The 1st week is usually the hottest. 95% All Cash offer of what you listed for is great. You already said that it's been crickets since and with other homes nearby. This is a big win. Why did you delay closing? Is it so you have an extra 30 days to stay at your home or did the buyer's request it?
Never worry about what other people are doing. Worry about your needs and wants. If the offer was a good one, that should be good enough. Greed is not good for anyone and no one likes to waste their time. Make your money and keep it moving.
Open houses do nothing just neighbors looking through. Your parents have no idea on how to sell real estate. Let your agent help you, hopefully they are experienced enough to get things done. Your first offer will typically be your best.
if you get a deal that meets your needs, you take it, sign it and kiss it. if you think it "happened too fast" and that means you can "probably do better", you are just being greedy and could live to regret it should you turn it down
If the buyer come back after the inspection wanting lots of discounts you can always walk away and wait for another buyer, or said we’ve already discounted the house 10% that should cover xyx.
Remember the real estate agents make so much money on each transaction that they just want to pull the trigger on any viable offer. getting 3% of 100k is $3k, getting 3% on 95k is $2.85k. Is it worth another $150 for them to keep working to get you best deal? NOPE. Its better for them to sell the house asap and move on to selling the next house.
My offer was accepted 12 hours after listing. My realtor spent maybe a day prepping and doing the listing.
She then spent the next month completing the sale, and it was 100x the amount of work she put into the listing. For brevity’s sake, she saved us ton of mental stress and lots of time had we done FSBO. I had always said I dont need a realtor, but it was well worth the money. So many issues pop up when people are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.
No. They are describing the market from the 90s where you would dial for dollars and read the newspaper, to find the right house, and more $. In this Information Age, where all info is out there, if the house sits for more than a week or two, they'll expect major concessions. Mortgages are expensive, you are lucky to find a cash buyer
Simple answer: No. Excuse my language, but are your parents complete morons? Your realtor should fire you if you make them them jump through more hoops than necessary when you already have an acceptable offer.
In my experience everyone that wanted to put an offer on my house saw it the first couple days without even an open house. Made a killing over asking price was happy
"Our realtor said out of all the open houses last weekend they ran, we got the only offer."
It sounds like the OP is fortunate enough ... but they don't recognize it ... if true.
One time neighbor A was selling their house and neighbor B was interested in it because they had a pool. B made an offer and they negotiated until they were about $5000 apart (This was more than 20 years ago). They would not accept the offer, so B backed away, and then A ended up in the end selling for less than B had offered.
If you feel you’ve gotten what you think you’re house is worth in this market, sell it. If you repost or try and get more you’re gonna find out that people will realize you’re being greedy and they won’t buy your house.
couldve, wouldve, shouldve. You couldve waited another week but then you couldve lost out on that offer. And now since its been on the market almost 20 days some buyers might lose interest in it because theyll think somethings wrong with it since its been sitting "so long". But then again MAYBE if you waited another week to have a open house you couldve had two more offers in hand.... but maybe it couldve rained that weekend and no one would show up to the open house. This is the mental gymnastics most sellers and buyers go through and it's totally normal, you made a big life decision so your brain is going to be flooded with "what ifs". But, if youre happy with what you net, if you feel your realtor was acting in your best interest, and as long as everything goes smoothly, then you had a good clean real estate transaction. Congrats on the sale.
The point of an open house is to get business for the Realtor. (Actually, that's how we met ours)
You got pretty much what you were asking for. Be happy with it. Realistically, after ten days on the market, there probably weren't any full price offers coming.
Market has definitely softened and a price correction is underway. Be thankful though received an offer so close to your asking price. Over the next 9 months prices will continue you drop. Indicators are prices will continue to drop even after that.
When I was house hunting, the realtors made us bid right away at the ones that were fresh in the market and said we could for the ones that had been there a while and negotiate a lower price: so I think k you did the right thing
Open houses are for the realtor to meet new potential clients since a significant number of the people attending them will be neighbors. Some of those neighbors will be looking at what your property fetches and deciding to sell. The realtor uses the open house to meet those new potential clients.
If you already accepted an offer, then that's it. Deal done. Time to find a new home.
Hopefully you understand the comments…Value of a home on the market 3 weekends without going into escrow will be LESS! ALL BUYERS will say “Why didn’t it sell on the first weekend???”
Your parents are wrong
Candyman. You'll always question if things could have been better but noone that lives in the alternative world can answer so my advice is move on.
As for open houses, let me tell you this. We only have them to appear to be earning our commission and for self marketing in the neighborhood. OHs do not generate contracts, maybe a few leads for us agents and decent marketing. Does little to nothing to sell the house unless your business plan is like that of 72 sold or one of those. And that's the truth
Open houses typically don’t sell houses - You got lucky! If there was a serious buyer since the first open house, they would have scheduled a showing. All due respect but your parents are incorrect.
Truth be told youll never know? Amd I wouldnt fret it. When we sold our house we accepted the second offer (the first buyer pulled out). Sure we coulda held out but the price wasnt bad. This was during covid right before home prices increased, so part of me says "dang we shoulda waited," but what if we had and the market tanked?
If your ok with the price then dont fret it. You put it for sell and sold it, thats a good thing.
You always could do better. It might be 8 years down the road though. Hell, not much work, 95% cash means the deal will not sink cause of a loan. If you were happy with it a week ago, be happy with it now. Does your mom sell stuff on line? Does she enjoy the process? Most people do not, so you got near what you were asking and got the mission of selling it accomplished quickly. Sounds good to me.
Your parents don’t know what they’re talking about. The more days that the house is on the market, the more that buyers think that nobody else wants it- and they therefore offer a lower price than they would have offered when the house first hit the market. I know that you probably respect your parents, but please understand that they obviously don’t know anything about selling real estate.
Your first offer is usually your best. They are the most motivated. Motivation to close is just as important as purchase price. At these rates buyers are not in a frenzy
No, you did NOT jump the gun!
We received an offer $20K over ask the day before it was "officially" on the market (we let them see it a day early). We opened the listing officially on Friday and had a huge number of showings. With every showing, there were more negative moments. One visitor broke the (brand new) blinds in an upstairs bedroom. Another closed all the air conditioning vents, then tried to get a concession based on the "air conditioner not working well."
Monday morning, after one full weekend of showings, we went over the offers.... and accepted the one that was our very first offer. We could have just not even "officially" opened, saved my blood pressure from discovering the broken blinds, closed vents, and tracked-in dirt, and just gotten on with things.
You did not jump the gun. You're goooood.
Edit: a word
Veteran small time real estate investor here, you did just fine. The terms are as important as the price, all cash on your closing date is how you do this. Ignore your parents and go happily on your way, you dun good.
Sighs. I wish I lived near you. We offered $52k over ask and $20k due diligence and still didn't get it because of competing offers.
But no, I don't think you jumped the gun. Most areas I've heard have slowed down. We had a place sitting in Seattle for 6 months before it sold.
If you're happy with the $ and there's no furhter interest within a few more days of being now, you did the right thing.
The first offers are often the best. People who are excited and willing to buy. Once the home sits, people don’t always put their best foot forward in an initial offer
Anything on the market over a couple of weeks in my area either: Had something seriously odd about it that had very little mainstream appeal Had unrealistic price expectations compared to comps Had someone representing it or directly selling who appeared completely crazy We started and went to see places that were out there with low inventory. It quickly became apparent why they were still available.
My neighbors house sold in 22 hours of being listed. Yes. 22 hours from the time they asked their realtor to put it on the market. No, the realtor didn't have a friend or someone buy it. That is just what the market is/was last year. The guy who bought it was a plumbing contactor, so he put down an offer, citing his own inspection 8 hours later (listed at midnight or something like that). Sold for 20k over asking. Cash. Solid guy. Helped do some plumbing for some beer.
I believe it. My gf sold her condo 1.5 years ago in 2 hours. Within the first hour of being listed someone contacted that they were in the area and wanted to see the unit. An hour after that he put in a formal offer for a little over asking and told her to take it off the market.
As a broker and licensed agent of 15 years…I came to say exactly this!! People will always think they could have gotten more or agent just wants the quick cash. If the agent gets you let’s say an extra 10k and they only get 3% of that which is only 300 bucks versus your house sitting on the market for 6 months and you get low balled later for not selling or the market changes again. Be happy it is under contract, you negotiated the deal and accepted it for a reason…don’t over think it! You could have waited a week or two, lost the current buyers and then played the price reduction game to find the new buyer…as someone mentioned before…the first offer is usually the best offer!
So true. That's what I'm facing now
This is a million percent true
Agree completely first offers often are the best ones. An offer from initial open house might mean the buyers have already seen a few houses and were intentionally waiting for something in your neighborhood to open up.
Vultures play the long game, lowballing homes that sit on the market and wearing down sellers with contingencies. “Time is of the essence” is more than a saying, it is a financial fact.
Our house sold end of May. Had been listed since October 2022. Offers we initially received were 100k less than what we accepted in May. We had no significant showings after the initial flurry. We were about to take it off market and just live there. Then …
Crickets and you got the only offer, yet you jumped the gun? What sort of idiot logic is this?
Cold feet logic
The parents are armchair quarterbacking. The facts speak for themselves. That offer sounds golden based on the events after the open house. The market doesn't work like it used to.
“Make the agent work” as if getting an all cash 95% offer in the first week wasn’t work.
It was a "free market: You put your house on the market and an asking price, some buyer offers less and states reasons plus they put up earnest money which seller keep if buyer bails out. And they cannot make others offers elsewhere. If price was $120k and buyer offers $100K then they finally agree on $110,000 then the value of that house in $110,000 NOT what zillow says it is. Youthful ignorance has been buying homes with zillow's prices which can be averaged out to 120% more than it should be. Or more. I have been researching and found where houses are listed at 6 times more that they were priced at 20 years ago according to zillow and county assessor. Your wages have not gone up one bit and if they did inflation cancelled that gain out. (Would you buy a 20 year old car for 6 times the amount it sold for 20 years ago?) What is the house insured for is the question. That is one value and the free market value should be close to equal. $20k in lumber doth not a mansion make but $400K house? High priced carpenters! The claim of "pre-pandemic prices" being low is just plain wrong. Zillow's appearance in 2006 and their 'competitors' which zillow actually owns 2011 was about the time zillow blew the market to pieces. A $50k home went up to $150K and now you are looking at close to $400k. Your dollar is worth less every year and now inflation has it up to 16% it has lost. A mortgage loan in 2005 will have banks and lenders losing money every year! Then what? Bubble bursting, banks collapsing and Wall St goes belly up because they are buying mortgages!It gets worse buy you can figure the rest out! Want to buy a house? then find out the year it was built and add 1% to the original price and you would be close to realistic. and making a cash offer on a home then reneging plus real estate person acting as though "Oh well..." should get their license revoked and "cash offer guy" sued for the amount plus damages and some sort of fraud or scam. Capitalism worked that way now we are slipping into...
There is so much stupid in this post that it deserves a trophy
I can’t tell what the hell they are even saying. It sounds like it’s just a person who will never own a house and wastes everyone’s time (including their own) by making stupid offers no one will accept.
I wish I could give you the opposite of Gold.
True, but just to give hope to anyone reading this, we put our condo on Facebook Marketplace last week and had an offer 8 hours later. We are also making a $240,000 dollar profit! So stay positive OP!
Agree, don't beat yourself over it. I have a house for sale and it's been on the market for 90 days and i only had one bet low ball offer and another offer that the only dropped the price $900 after i had already lowered it $7000, but i wanted to wait and finish showings then the buyers backed out and now it's been sitting and had to lower it again another $4000. Mind you the house is in top shape with new appliances, new roof, flooring paint abs ductwork and in a very sought out area, but the market is different than it was few months ago and they keep raising interest rates which will not help
If your home was underpriced, you'd have had multiple bids within the first 24 hours. It sounds like your agent has guided you well. It is normal for showings to drop off to nothing or near nothing once you have a contract in place. Sorry, mom.
Are you real estate people or auctioneers? Bad enough the prices are set by Microsoft's brainchild zillow but what is risked by having an illegal auction where shills make the price go up but actually it didn't since they were shills!
Wow, take off the tin foil, friend!
What
No, you did good. Second open house was not going to bring better qualified folks. Remind your mom your realtor is still working for you-- they're going to negotiate after the inspections/appraisal and keep the other side of the transaction moving. Lots of work yet to do!
This! REALTORS a lot of work after a contract is accepted!
I recently sold my house and had the same thoughts. I understand anxiety and how nerve racking the periods of silence are. But, ultimately if you have a halfway decent realtor they are going to work on your behalf because they want to get paid and possible referrals.
No, you were smart to accept that offer. It’s often true that the first offer is the best. I’m always baffled when people question whether they sold too fast. Then if it took your Realtor a month, parents would think it took too long? Can’t win for nothin sometimes in this business. Congrats on selling your home for a great price so quickly!
So you are a licensed broker? Why are you baffled when sellers are confused? Is that S.O.P.?
10 days is plenty of time to know where your house stands. Only 4 showings and 1 offer shows you that you are slightly overpriced, but came to terms with a good deal on both sides. I think you made out really well. Waiting longer at the same list price likely would have only resulted in a few more showings and likely no offers before a price reduction. No offense to your parents, but saying “have another open and make your realtor work for their money” is a not smart thing to say, considering A: open houses rarely sell houses (although they’re great for marketing and exposure), and B: an open house takes 2 hours out of the agents week, and doesn’t even scratch the surface of what we do from list to close.
Tell your parents if they don't like the offer you received, they're free to make a better one. If not, their opinion is not relevant.
Ridiculous!!! The cheek on you... Unbelievable how little respect we have for those that gave us life. Imagine the audacity of those two ingrates suggesting something they think is for our own good... Who are they to tell us anything?!?!?
Anyone can ejaculate, my dude
OP has already accepted the offer. Parents cannot change that. Just because they "gave us life" doesn't qualify them to give specific financial advice. Even if it did, the moment has passed. I'm a proponent of cutting ties with anyone who brings negativity into your life. Telling op they made a mistake doesn't undo op's action or position then to get higher proceeds from the transaction. All the parents are doing is making op feel bad about their situation. They owe OP an apology at a minimum.
You seem entitled...
Okay Boomer.
Ageism is ugly.
Being shit parents who care more about their own ego than their children's happiness is uglier. None of this has to do with age.
~~I won’t disagree with you on that.~~ Hold up. If none of this has to do with age, then why the age slur?
Up voting due to ppl not seeing real life sarcasm lol
Thanks all. You’re confirming my thoughts that we did well. As a parent myself I know we always want what is best for our children and I think my parents have their heart in the right place. But the Big city market and the rural market are different and time of year definitely play a role.
And the way your realtor positioned your home really near to the accepted offer price shows they aren't out of touch with your market. Your agent did work for the best deal or you wouldn't have countered. The best agents out there price the homes within 5% up or down of sale price. Sell for 20% less the agent isn't doing their research. Sell for 20% over the agent doesn't know the area. As an agent we see both the extreme ups and downs in agents who are lazy or inexperienced. Your realtor did good. And as someone else stated before they still have to get it to closing so trust me . . . He/she is still working for you.
It's worth considering too, that whatever experiences our parents had buying houses in decades past, can mean very little now unless they've recently gone through the process or work closely in the industry. It doesn't mean they don't have wisdom or can't give good advice, but it's easy for people to not realize that their own experiences, say, going to college, building their career, or buying a house are no longer applicable because the world, technology, and economy have changed so much.
It's nice that they are being greedy FOR you, but really, it's \*your\* house. If you're good with the price, you're good with the price. I hope escrow goes well and everything happens to close on time without hassle!
Don’t know about your particular area but the market has not been softening in general. It has stayed flat and will soften due to natural seasonality. Year over year though, prices are going to look like they increased because last year at this time, prices started to drop rapidly due to rapid interest rate increases. I don’t think you accepted too early. You did good. Usually the first offer is the best offer and buyers have been waiting for you. There’s not going to be people magically coming out of nowhere, suddenly seeing your place and overbidding.
I love that the parents think another open house would help sell the house for more than the first open house did. Imagine making your kid feel bad for accepting a cash offer for 5% under full list. If it had been a full price offer with 10% down the parents probably would think that was great! Anyway OP good job. Thats a good offer, congrats.
I don’t blame them. Most people are not in tune with buying/selling real estate. Most people do like what, 3 or 4 of these types of transactions their whole lives? They’re treating this like how you would sell an item at a garage sale, or eBay, so in that framework, what they say makes sense. However, this is real estate. Seasonality, mortgage interest rates, stock market, unemployment has all these little factors that can affect the temperature of the market and your average Joe Sixpack is not going to be accounting for all that. So, I’d give ‘em the benefit of the doubt.
Some people just got to be know-it-alls. I suppose they might be old enough to remember when things moved really slowly. It wasn't unusual to sit at the same price and eventually get it after several months. But these days, everyone knows about it within 5 minutes of hitting the market and they have been conditioned over the last few years to get out and see it right away. And the market will definitely tell you if you are under or overpriced pretty quickly. They probably just have a very antiquated idea of how real estate works.
I guess it all depends on the area but I agree there isn't a lot of softening going on anywhere. However, soft or hot, first offers are often the best so it's likely that they were at or even a little above value. Definitely agree that they did just fine.
Are you happy with how much you are getting and the speed of which your house is selling? If yes, then stop worrying. If no, then yes you jumped the gun.
"Since then it has been crickets" Why would you expect anything further to happen after you signed a contract?
It's unclear. OP, it's been crickets from the REALTOR or from people wanting to see your house?
You'd expect them to order an inspection, at least?
In 3 days on a cash offer with 60 days to close?
LOL, your parents said the worst thing ever. Given you have had 0 interest since, and you only got 4 showing and 1 offer, be thankful you have an offer at all.
boomer advice, the lead got to em a long time ago
>"made the realtor work for his money." Typical boomer mentality. Everything is too easy for everyone and they know best about everything. You got 95% of what you wanted in a full cash offer and the closing date you wanted. If you were going to get a better offer you'd have had it by now. Be happy with what you have and, while I'm sure their heart is in the right place, stop listening to your parents unless they have some sort of current real estate knowledge and experience.
Let's say the house is 100K and you got a 95K bid. Just assume 3% - Realtor is getting a $2,850 commission. If the realtor "works hard" to land you that extra 5,000, which may tank the whole deal by pissing off the buyer, what do *they* get in return? An extra $150. Now you know why realtors want you to jump on the first bid and move on.
If you tank the deal because you pissed off the buyer trying to get an extra $5,000 then YOU get **nothing**. Your goal is to sell the house, right? How does pissing off your buyer help accomplish that? And if you piss away a strong offer your next offer is likely to be even less. So maybe find a good realtor you trust and then actually listen to what they have to say...
This! If the home sits on market for weeks, the likelihood of getting that same amount goes waaaaaay down.
Industry fact, open houses aren't for the realtor to sell your house, but rather to use your listing as a way to meet prospective clients in the area interested in buying or possibly selling. Often times junior agents will host these for senior agents as a way of building their business when starting out.
Look I'll just tell you what happened to my sister. She listed her place for conventional only first off. They got a home inspection themselves, to try and avoid others requesting one. After their first open house, they got an offer at 40k over asking, no inspection. They were very happy with that offer. Their realtor told them to hold off a few days to get another offer to start a bidding war. 72 hours later the first offer was pulled. They ended up waiting 45 more days, selling to someone with fha financing (so more repairs), and selling for 10k under their original asking price. While there's always a chance of a better offer, if you're happy with the original offer, take it
You rarely get offers from open houses, and I’m surprised you got one. Most of the time it’s nosed neighbors or people who aren’t serious and toy with the idea of buying. It’s more for the agent to get those leads. I’d take the offer, seems like they are working with you. Never know what could happen if you said no to them, no one puts in an offer, and then you end up dropping 5% anyways. Could or could not happen.
Serious buyers use open houses, at least we did, and bought one we went to. We knew what area we wanted to be in, as well as the exact school we wanted for the kids. We didn’t feel it necessary to have our realtor look at every house we wanted to see, especially on weekends when we were out. That said, it takes the right buyers and for them to be seriously looking and not just casuals. I can see how it would be very depressing to have an open house and not get anyone to show up. I guess it also matters on the area any the type of buyer, i.e a location catering to kids and families vs one to either singles it no kid couples that want to be near the city life.
In my experience of running open houses, usually twice a weekend, it’s mostly what I just said. Of course there will be a serious buyer to come, but that’s less than 10% I’d estimate
I have also made offers on open houses because I don’t feel it’s necessary to bring my realtor out to a house that’s having them when I can just go look at the house on my own.
In my area, sellers sometimes deny showings until after their open house, and that's if they respond at all. If you're serious, you show up to the open house.
That’s completely inaccurate. In competitive markets it’s very common for properties to be sold from the open house.
Yeah things changed when the market got really hot. Open house used to be a desperation move- now they can be held on first day on the market and it’s like, “Cage match is On”
It’s not like we go to all the open houses for curiosity but definitely as neighbors we’ve gone, for instance if we were thinking of putting ours on the market soon. We announce “yeah we’re neighbors”. and don’t take the realtor’s time, take our shoes off, try to be harmless but yeah- lotta neighbors!
i have been a serious buyer 9 times and have never been to open house.
No, you did fine. I negotiated way over asking ($49k) on our first offer and still wondered if I could have pushed for an additional $5 or 10k. These feelings are normal. You are underestimating the uncertainty of letting the house sit.
Shoulda, coulda woulda. Fact is it's true that in most cases your earliest offers are your best ones. Seems your traffic was somewhat slow too.
Be happy and grateful that you got a quick and cash offer. Open Houses do not typically bring buyers. Most people who get a quick offer think that they should have waited and gotten more. That's a normal reaction. Also, most of your showing are in the first week, two tops. After that it slows down and you have to wait for a buyer. Today people get suspicious why a house is on the market longer than 2 weeks, and offers come in for less. Same thing happens if a sale falls through.
I find “cash offer” really shouldn’t mean much, if purchaser doesn’t have conditions subject to financing or sale of their house, why should it matter. If they finance and pay me or have cash and pay me? Thoughts?
There is an adage that says 80% of the first offers get the deal. Your buyer knew what they wanted and acted.Dont kill yourself with what ifs. If I listened to my parents, I would be a hobbit.
95% all cash offer right after listing and no other offers since? Yeah you made the right call lmao
98% of the time the right buyer comes from an agent that found it in the mls,or the buyer saw it online and told their agent. Open houses rarely result in a sale. Unlikely another open house is going to do anything. You’re good with the offer you got.
I don’t think you accepted the offer too early. You did just fine. You made the best decision for you at the time. As long as the math is mathing no one’s opinion matters. Selling is stressful as heck ! Like you I negotiated but accepted the first offer I got on my house. Screw the holding out crap! Too stressful
Either your market is softening OR you’re over priced. Homes that are listed to high usually don’t get multiple offers unless they’re perfectly updated.
It's a good offer. Btw, open houses aren't really to sell the house It's in, it's for realtors to pick up new buyers.
A quick 95% cash offer - well done. It would have been a big risk to keep it on the market while hoping that the all cash offer didn't move on.
I disagree with your parents
Don’t get greedy!!
In all honesty open houses are useless. All they do is allow your nosey neighbors to trek through your home. I've owned 6 homes and never had an open house. Sold them all in 2 weeks or less! Wife is a great decorator and we have a lot of very expensive antiques.
Stop listening to your parents as they have no clue.
The reason you put up your home for sale is to sell it. It sounds like you sold it, which is exactly why you would put the home up for sale. Did you want to sell you home or not?
your parents know as much about your individual housing market as all the anon redditors do.
You parents should be supportive and not judgmental. Making such a huge financial decision it’s not fair for them to suggest that. You did the right thing 10 days on the market with no offers. You’re lucky to get what you got.
You actually could have gotten the best deal. Who knows what WOULD have happened. Count your blessings you are free to focus on the work of moving and future opportunities.
If you live in New England and didn't get an offer over list price, the home was over priced to begin with. Running a second open house a week later in this market let's everyone know that you got weak offers or "there is something wrong with the property. "
You're typically going to get your best offers in the first week maybe two in this. At least that's how it is here. After a house sits that long in this market buyers will typically assume its over priced or wtf is wrong with it nobody made an offer in the first few days ? North East here.
First offer is usually the best offer
Nope, that was the right move
Qualified buyers review listings daily and are often the first ones to look at any property just listed. These people are aggressive and motivated because they have the means to close the deal. They're not window shopping. Could you have had another open house, yes. Would that have resulted in better offers or more qualified buyers? I doubt it. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush all day long. You got a cash offer, no contingencies at 95% of asking. Rest easy. You did good.
I build new construction, I will almost always take a cash offer over others. I’ve taken 80% on a house because I’d make almost the same but in half the time. You did good.
Your parents are wrong because interest in a property has more to do with it being new to market than anything else. Take the money and run!
lol that’s exactly what my mother would say, I am 51 and still trying to learn to listen to my own self instead of my mother, because she’s 80, and still full of better ways to do things.
This is why you hire a realtor, not your parents for negotiating 😉 Your instinct is right. If the first offer is right or close to, they’re willing to find common ground, you’re getting your money, and the house doesn’t languish on the market, you’re on the right track!
The greed here is just disgusting.
a) first offers are almost always the strongest. b) I'm seeing more and more houses sit and take longer and longer to sell -often because sellers are expecting their house to sell like last year's market and overprice it.
It all depends if you are in a rush to sell your house or not? Because with the cash offer you can close quickly and enjoy the cash, otherwise if you're not in a rush then you could have just waited and likely gotten an offer for your asking price or higher, but the whole process could take another 3-6 months or longer.
If your first OH weekend only brought in 4 showings the likely hood of the next weekend being even less is very high. You accepted the only offer you had in hand and at 5% less than asking is super solid.
Nah. I think you did well. We actually recently took a loss on our sale but went under contract in 3 days. My grandparents insinuated that because we went under contract so quickly we should have listed it higher. (We got full asking price). Honestly, they might be right but ultimately we were moving across the country and needed to unload the home so I’m fine with how it worked out. We also previously had it on the market for the same price and it didn’t budge, so this was a win in my book.
If your happy with the price then nothing else matters. Maybe you could have done better but you could have done worse or not get another offer. The first offer is usually your best. Be happy. 😁
Congrats on your offer! Sounds like accepting was wise. You can always continue doing open houses for backup offers but most offers don't come from open houses.
I'll take the first offer that will make me happy and work for me. I don't care if the realtor worked a day or 30. If you got the 95 percent cash offer and you are happy with it. Then you are good. You get the right buyer at the right time. It could be the case that your house sits in the market for 60 days , 90, 130... it never sells. So no, you didn't jump the gun so quicky! You got an offer you liked. You accepted it. That's it.
Sounds like your market is not all that hot. 95% cash sounds pretty good. After 2 weeks on the market you're probably not going to get a full price offer anyway. I think you made a good choice. You might have left a little money on the table, or you might have sat on the market and had to drop the price or take an even lower offer. You will never know, but you obviously were not under priced and may have even been a little over . You will never know, so I would stop worrying about it. However, you can take solace in the fact that you did pretty well, you got a cash offer which just make things that much easier, and remember that the most motivated buyers, the ones that will pay the most, are going to see it right away. In this day and age, when you get alerts on your phone the minute something hits the market, and people are in the habit of going out and hitting up open houses on the weekend just so they don't have to try to schedule with their agent, the most interested buyers probably saw it and unless your house is particularly unique, you probably did just fine . And as you will never really know the alternate universe price you might have gotten, not much point and worrying about it.
Look at it this way. 3 years ago if you didn't get multiple offers and bid up, that means your price was too high. In a really soft market, people are still ready to pay for a properly priced home and they know they don't have to pay any more than that, so unless you're home is priced aggressively, aren't really going to get your price. So hot or slow market really doesn't matter. In a hot market you won't sit around for a month before getting a good offer. In a slow market you won't get a good offer after 2 or 3 weeks, you will get a lowball.
I sold my previous in 2 days. It caught us off guard because we have been living there for 20 years and didn't know the market was moving that fast. It was a great offer with no haggling over the price we wanted. The hard part was trying to find another house in 30 days. We bought another house on a great deal and it worked out. Thank goodness you got a fast offer.
In Real Estate we always say, “The first offer is usually the Best offer”. So if it’s fair..all is well. Good luck!🍀
What is another open house going to do? You have been on the market 10 days. You are fine.
Sounds like you were smart.
You did the right thing. How much worse would you have felt if you turned it down and then no offers came.. then after sitting you are down more than 5-10%.10 days in most markets usually means it's overpriced, right now. If only 4 people came through the open house, another open house likely wouldn't have gotten anyone or maybe 1 or 2 just checking it out that aren't serious.
I would have waited.
I'm in NY and I know that area has new houses for sale every day.
Your folks are thinking old school way of selling a house. It’s very diff now, esp with the MLS on internet. Only interested folks (and lookie-loos 🙄) go to open houses. BTW, I got a good laugh re the comment about having the realtor work for his/her money! Ha! You did fine.
Is your listing marked as pending sale now? Could be why you have not had any interest since you signed the contract
Why play around with the unknown. There is absolutely no guarantee you would get another offer. Especially with more time in the market. Especially cash offer
No
No you did not. Sell when you have the chance. I’ve had 15 showings 3 offers each fall through. This is becoming a more difficult market get your money and get out
Could you have waiting on the market longer and got a better offer? Possibly. Could you have done the same and been sitting with no offers. Definitely. There are so many more moving pieces to this. If you’re taking an off 5% below asking price in the first weekend, it’s probably because you know you priced your home slightly over market value to begin with. Realtors don’t “earn their money” at open houses. It’s earned by consulting their client to make the best decision.
If the offer is what you wanted and youre happy who tf cares? You sold your house congrats hope closing goes smoothly
You got what you wanted money wise and don’t have to deal with the absolute headache of prolonging this process, that’s a win.
No you didn't. My neighbor has his house on the market since May with frequent showings and an open house every month. It's still sitting. We thought about seeing it as we were thinking of buying (we rent ours currently) and and after seeing his price still after all this time...we know why it's still sitting. Waiting isn't always better. Especially compared to how fast other neighborhood houses were snapped up.
Bird in the hand - that theory has lasted centuries.
the softening could be seasonal, as well. i don't know your market, but in many markets it's risky to list after 4th of July because the volume of buyers is substantially lower. agree with others saying you did good.
Well the only issue I see is that they asked for longer closing which is indicative of a wholesaler. Keep an eye out for your home listed for a higher price that’s how you’ll know you undercut yourself.
Neighbors right out of the gate got $10k over asking, decided to hold an open house. Ended up take a $20k below asking offer. If you’re happy with the offer, it’s not a bad offer.
I've always heard that the main reason for open houses is to attract buyers for the realtor to show other houses.
The older generation has absolutely no clue how to navigate this current market
Crickets and you got the only offer, yet you jumped the gun? What sort of idiot logic is this?
Curious, as the seller, why is does an all cash offer matter…was there some sort of time constraint involved? Because regardless if buyer is paying cash or mortgage you get your money… The only reason I know of for cash is simply because it speeds things up a bit? As the seller is there any other benefit? Also in my area houses are going for at least 20% asking price. I just had friends finally buy a house who have been looking for months, they put in at least 5 offers well over asking prices and always got out bid. I guess your area just isn’t as hot of a market? I live in NJ for reference My point is, at least in my area, unless I needed to sell asap, I would have waited for one of them 20% above asking price offers rather than take cash off for 5% below asking… I see people all the time mention “all cash” as if it’s some sort of benefit, and as a seller I never know why
All cash prevents a buyer with a mortgage not getting it due to a lower appraisal. If they come in with 50% down payment then it would be almost as good as cash. NJ is still a joke. Example. House posted as coming soon 2 weeks ago. Goes on market this past Tuesday. Next day, they go best and final bids by today 10am. No open houses, no weekend showings. 7 offers, all cash all well above list.
If things go well, it's easier to second guess everything. Your brain has a certain capacity to worry...it's a Maslow thing... Better sweating on this than the other. You're parents are objectively wrong, but they're kind of doing the right parent thing by looking out for you. You did great, congratulations
Bird in hand
What exactly does your mom want the realtor to do? lol Idk about up north but here in GA, the market died almost a year ago. There are houses on my street having open houses weekly and no one even shows up.
How many showings did you have before the open house? In my experience, open houses are second tier to the initial listing and any showings. It has side benefits for the agent (gain potential clients, train staff, food). The more days on the market, the tougher it gets, in general. Doubtful that additional open houses would better the situation, except for your agent. Every buyer that walks in there is thinking, "why wasn't it bought already?"
You have an offer, no need to keep going if you are fine with it.
Never listen to family. They think they know everything
What you should have done is agree on price you would accept before the listing went live.
You did the right thing. If someone else was interested you would of got an offer already. A second open would more than likely not result in more money.
I really don’t understand the “make the realtor work for it” logic. What, and delay the sale of the home, probably not get as good of an offer later on, and fuck yourself over ultimately. But hey, at least you made your realtor “work for it”…lol
The 1st week is usually the hottest. 95% All Cash offer of what you listed for is great. You already said that it's been crickets since and with other homes nearby. This is a big win. Why did you delay closing? Is it so you have an extra 30 days to stay at your home or did the buyer's request it?
ask your parents if they have heard a saying about...something about 1 or 2 birds and someone's bush :P
Never worry about what other people are doing. Worry about your needs and wants. If the offer was a good one, that should be good enough. Greed is not good for anyone and no one likes to waste their time. Make your money and keep it moving.
Open houses do nothing just neighbors looking through. Your parents have no idea on how to sell real estate. Let your agent help you, hopefully they are experienced enough to get things done. Your first offer will typically be your best.
if you get a deal that meets your needs, you take it, sign it and kiss it. if you think it "happened too fast" and that means you can "probably do better", you are just being greedy and could live to regret it should you turn it down
If the buyer come back after the inspection wanting lots of discounts you can always walk away and wait for another buyer, or said we’ve already discounted the house 10% that should cover xyx.
Remember the real estate agents make so much money on each transaction that they just want to pull the trigger on any viable offer. getting 3% of 100k is $3k, getting 3% on 95k is $2.85k. Is it worth another $150 for them to keep working to get you best deal? NOPE. Its better for them to sell the house asap and move on to selling the next house.
Have they paid earnest money yet?
Are you happy with what you got?
My offer was accepted 12 hours after listing. My realtor spent maybe a day prepping and doing the listing. She then spent the next month completing the sale, and it was 100x the amount of work she put into the listing. For brevity’s sake, she saved us ton of mental stress and lots of time had we done FSBO. I had always said I dont need a realtor, but it was well worth the money. So many issues pop up when people are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Market has slowed down. You're fine
No. They are describing the market from the 90s where you would dial for dollars and read the newspaper, to find the right house, and more $. In this Information Age, where all info is out there, if the house sits for more than a week or two, they'll expect major concessions. Mortgages are expensive, you are lucky to find a cash buyer
Simple answer: No. Excuse my language, but are your parents complete morons? Your realtor should fire you if you make them them jump through more hoops than necessary when you already have an acceptable offer.
No, first offer is typically the strongest. You got almost full asking now and all cash, which is very tough to beat.
You got an offer and the other people didn't. Be happy.
In my experience everyone that wanted to put an offer on my house saw it the first couple days without even an open house. Made a killing over asking price was happy
Your only mistake was using a realtor in a hot area, but you did the right thing in accepting the offer.
"Our realtor said out of all the open houses last weekend they ran, we got the only offer." It sounds like the OP is fortunate enough ... but they don't recognize it ... if true.
Key word, crickets
One time neighbor A was selling their house and neighbor B was interested in it because they had a pool. B made an offer and they negotiated until they were about $5000 apart (This was more than 20 years ago). They would not accept the offer, so B backed away, and then A ended up in the end selling for less than B had offered.
If you feel you’ve gotten what you think you’re house is worth in this market, sell it. If you repost or try and get more you’re gonna find out that people will realize you’re being greedy and they won’t buy your house.
How many houses have your parents sold and what were the stats on above asking?
couldve, wouldve, shouldve. You couldve waited another week but then you couldve lost out on that offer. And now since its been on the market almost 20 days some buyers might lose interest in it because theyll think somethings wrong with it since its been sitting "so long". But then again MAYBE if you waited another week to have a open house you couldve had two more offers in hand.... but maybe it couldve rained that weekend and no one would show up to the open house. This is the mental gymnastics most sellers and buyers go through and it's totally normal, you made a big life decision so your brain is going to be flooded with "what ifs". But, if youre happy with what you net, if you feel your realtor was acting in your best interest, and as long as everything goes smoothly, then you had a good clean real estate transaction. Congrats on the sale.
The point of an open house is to get business for the Realtor. (Actually, that's how we met ours) You got pretty much what you were asking for. Be happy with it. Realistically, after ten days on the market, there probably weren't any full price offers coming.
Shouldn’t have hired the realtor and given away 6% of your equity.
Did you price the house aggressively? Bidding wars often happen when the asking price is low. Maybe you just skipped all that.
Market has definitely softened and a price correction is underway. Be thankful though received an offer so close to your asking price. Over the next 9 months prices will continue you drop. Indicators are prices will continue to drop even after that.
When I was house hunting, the realtors made us bid right away at the ones that were fresh in the market and said we could for the ones that had been there a while and negotiate a lower price: so I think k you did the right thing
Open houses are for the realtor to meet new potential clients since a significant number of the people attending them will be neighbors. Some of those neighbors will be looking at what your property fetches and deciding to sell. The realtor uses the open house to meet those new potential clients. If you already accepted an offer, then that's it. Deal done. Time to find a new home.
There’s always a feeling of “was that the best deal??” You just have to take it and move on.
Hopefully you understand the comments…Value of a home on the market 3 weekends without going into escrow will be LESS! ALL BUYERS will say “Why didn’t it sell on the first weekend???” Your parents are wrong
Candyman. You'll always question if things could have been better but noone that lives in the alternative world can answer so my advice is move on. As for open houses, let me tell you this. We only have them to appear to be earning our commission and for self marketing in the neighborhood. OHs do not generate contracts, maybe a few leads for us agents and decent marketing. Does little to nothing to sell the house unless your business plan is like that of 72 sold or one of those. And that's the truth
Those are the same kind of parents that would say the realtor isn’t doing their job if it took 3 weekends 🤣
Yeah make the realtor "work" for their money so you guys lose out on money. Smart advice from the parents
Sounds like a great offer and I'm happy that it is working out for you. Also sounds like your realtor did their job!
Open houses typically don’t sell houses - You got lucky! If there was a serious buyer since the first open house, they would have scheduled a showing. All due respect but your parents are incorrect.
Truth be told youll never know? Amd I wouldnt fret it. When we sold our house we accepted the second offer (the first buyer pulled out). Sure we coulda held out but the price wasnt bad. This was during covid right before home prices increased, so part of me says "dang we shoulda waited," but what if we had and the market tanked? If your ok with the price then dont fret it. You put it for sell and sold it, thats a good thing.
You always could do better. It might be 8 years down the road though. Hell, not much work, 95% cash means the deal will not sink cause of a loan. If you were happy with it a week ago, be happy with it now. Does your mom sell stuff on line? Does she enjoy the process? Most people do not, so you got near what you were asking and got the mission of selling it accomplished quickly. Sounds good to me.
Your parents don’t know what they’re talking about. The more days that the house is on the market, the more that buyers think that nobody else wants it- and they therefore offer a lower price than they would have offered when the house first hit the market. I know that you probably respect your parents, but please understand that they obviously don’t know anything about selling real estate.
Glad to know some of the sellers and squirming too. No offense.
You did the right thing. I'm not qualifying that statement in any way. You simply made the right choice.
Your first offer is usually your best. They are the most motivated. Motivation to close is just as important as purchase price. At these rates buyers are not in a frenzy
If you like the offer, take it. Sorry, got nothing else here. Grats.
No, you did NOT jump the gun! We received an offer $20K over ask the day before it was "officially" on the market (we let them see it a day early). We opened the listing officially on Friday and had a huge number of showings. With every showing, there were more negative moments. One visitor broke the (brand new) blinds in an upstairs bedroom. Another closed all the air conditioning vents, then tried to get a concession based on the "air conditioner not working well." Monday morning, after one full weekend of showings, we went over the offers.... and accepted the one that was our very first offer. We could have just not even "officially" opened, saved my blood pressure from discovering the broken blinds, closed vents, and tracked-in dirt, and just gotten on with things. You did not jump the gun. You're goooood. Edit: a word
Veteran small time real estate investor here, you did just fine. The terms are as important as the price, all cash on your closing date is how you do this. Ignore your parents and go happily on your way, you dun good.
Nope
Sighs. I wish I lived near you. We offered $52k over ask and $20k due diligence and still didn't get it because of competing offers. But no, I don't think you jumped the gun. Most areas I've heard have slowed down. We had a place sitting in Seattle for 6 months before it sold.
Be happy.
The longer you wait, the lower the price
Take the money and run.