It’s exactly what you were hoping for when you listed your Steamboat Springs house: multiple offers! They’ve just been submitted, and now you get to choose which offer is the best one. The highest dollar amount may look like the instant winner, but that first blush reaction should be put aside while all the included provisions are given thoughtful consideration.
If the top line amount offered is the only major difference, the decision can be an easy one—but that’s seldom the case. Your house sale’s net yield can be greatly affected by the offer details—considerations like these:
Timing–if the proposed closing date will arrive too soon OR too far in the future, accepting it may prove more costly than you’d think. It depends on the move-in date for your next home—especially if that’s up in the air. Gaps can be costly—especially if it winds up forcing you into a too-hasty (or too expensive) choice for your next home.
Cash or ??—“All-cash” offers sound appealing, but some cash offers aren’t as open-and-closed as the term implies—such as those funded by a loan that’s not contingent on the sale. If that offer is based on a line of credit, there might be less certainty than another based on cash in the bank. There is also something to be said for the hoops buyers have to jump through when a lender is enlisted—some of those protect the seller as well as the bank.
All those Contingencies—The standard contingencies (like inspection, financing, appraisal, or sale of the buyer’s property) most obviously stand to affect the net proceeds of the sale—or even whether the sale closes. That’s why, when they’re waived by a buyer in the multiple-offer situation, they’re intended to beat out competing offers.
The details of multiple offers are frequently dissimilar enough to make it extremely important that they be thoughtfully weighed—something made more demanding since they seldom lend themselves to an apples-to-apples analysis.
Truth to tell, even when a single offer comes over the transom, the same scrutiny applies. When I’m your Realtor®, I’ll be by your side, adding a goodly dose of real-world Steamboat Springs closing experience to the analysis. Call me!