W E A LT H A S A VAC AT ION
Once you make a purchase offer, sign it and submit it to the seller along with your earnest money, the seller has the right to either sign your offer as is, make a counteroffer or reject your offer outright. If the seller accepts your purchase offer, the offer becomes a contract, and you are on your way to owning the VRP. If the seller counters your offer, you may choose to reject it or walk away.
7.4 Closing the Transaction There are unlimited methods to making an offer. In my 25 years of real estate experience across 11 countries, each and every transaction is different and many of the variables are different. Let’s begin with the asking price. As you have already gathered statistics of the marketplace, looked at comparable data, and created your projections within your business plan, you should have a good “feel” as where to start. Fortunately, there are sellers who will price the VRP in a logical range. If this is the case, then this process will be quite painless. It may well be that the seller has priced the property close to or lower than similar properties that have recently sold in or close to the property location. This is not a bad seller strategy as it generates substantial immediate interest. In many cases, this approach may lead to offers higher than asking price and perhaps more importantly a quick sale. When you identify such properties, you have to move quickly, after careful analysis, with your offer. The amount of time the property has been on the market is also an important variable. If the VRP has been on the market for less than 60 days, the seller may not be willing to accept a lower offer. In some cases, the seller may not even make a counter offer. The seller’s strategy most likely will be to offer the property slightly higher than they expect, hoping they fi nd buyers willing to pay a premium for their property. Therefore, sellers may be unwilling to accept a lower offer until they have given the sale a reasonable time to develop. If you make what the seller considers a “low ball” offer, and the VRP has not been on the market long, you have a very low chance of success.
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