4 Questions to Identify Qualified Buyers for Your Charlotte Home for Sale by Owner
Selling a Charlotte home for sale by owner takes a lot of time, energy and expertise. You’ll need to know how to set a fair market value for your home, promote your home to the max to be able to pull in as many qualified buyers as you possibly can and then negotiate the final terms and sales price.
One of the most important skills you need to learn in order to find qualified buyers for your Charlotte home for sale by owner is how to sort out the “Lookie Loos” from the serious buyers.
Lookie Loos are people who aren’t serious at all about buying a home. At the very least, they waste your time and energy. At worst, Lookie Loos could be a security problem. They could be simply checking out your home to determine if you have valuables worth stealing.
Serious buyers are people who are interested in buying a home within the next 30 to 90 days and are already pre-approved for a mortgage. Make sure you spend your time and energy only on these individuals.
So, how do you identify qualified buyers? Before scheduling a time to show your Charlotte home for sale by owner to potential buyers, ask them these four questions:
- Are you pre-approved for a mortgage? If they’re pre-approved for a mortgage, they’re serious about buying a home. If buyers aren’t pre-approved, suggest they contact a mortgage specialist and get back in touch with you when they have their pre-approval letter. Mortgage specialists check the buyer’s credit score, income and debt ratios. They also verify that the buyer has enough money for down payment and closing costs.
- How much are you pre-approved for? Make sure they’ve been approved for a loan that allows them the ability to afford your home. If your home is valued at $500,000 and they’re only pre-approved for $150,000, then they cannot afford your home unless they can pay the difference in cash. If the buyer is purchasing your home with cash, or using cash for a large down payment, you’ll want to ask the buyer for a bank statement to verify his or her funds.
- Do you have your pre-approval letter? Verify that they are pre-approved for the amount they say they are. Ask the buyers to email or fax their pre-approval letter to you or bring it with them when they tour your home.
- When do you need to take possession of the home? Your move-out timeframe needs to be close to the buyer’s move-in deadline. How close? Close enough to negotiate the difference. If they don’t want to take possession of your home for six months, and you need to sell immediately, they’re not a serious buyer for your home.
To successfully sell your home, you need to know if a potential buyer is qualified to buy your home. The sooner you know this, the less time you’ll waste chasing after lookers and unqualified buyers.
Tired of going it alone? If you’d rather have an experienced Charlotte real estate agent handle everything for you from finding qualified buyers to negotiating the sales contract, give me a call or email me today.
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