Tick Tock, You Are on the Clock!
This post is for buyers out there. When you submit an offer, it is just the beginning of your journey and purchase of a home. There are so many deadlines! Trust that your agent will guide you through the process. I received an email today from a disgruntled buyer (not mine) who lost a home that they had offered on over the weekend. Here is the situation:
The buyers offered on a home that had only been on the market for a few days. They were told that there were many showings and interested parties, so they offered a very well written offer that was within 1% of the listing price with all of the requested documents and asked for a quick response from the seller. Submitting the offer at Friday at 5:00 pm and asking for a response by 8:00 am Saturday morning.
Since the buyers had not heard from their agent, they called to see if the agent had heard anything. The buyer's agent was unavailable and did not call them until 5:00 pm on Saturday. The news wasn't good. The sellers had accepted another offer.
What other offer? The first buyers had not been told that they were competing. Apparently the listing agent had tried to call the buyer's agent but did not reach them and did not leave a message. The sellers negotiated with the other offer they received instead.
Whose fault is it? This could have easily been anyone's fault. What if the buyers had submitted the offer with that short time frame and then went to a movie and were unavailable the rest of the night? The buyer's agent could have received the call about another offer and tried to reach the buyer to no avail, buyer still loses the house.
Tick tock. When you submit an offer with a short timeframe, that timeframe may come back and bite you! You need to be available for a rapid response as well. It isn't official until all parties have signed and all parties have a copy of the executed documents.
If you give too much time, you could allow another buyer to sneak in and steal your dream home.
If you are not available to answer a question posed by the seller, they may choose another offer.
There is too much at stake to be on auto-pilot. You cannot assume that you are the only buyer that is interested. You never know who looked at the house yesterday or last week and has decided to submit an offer too.
And the listing agent is not required to tell you that there is another offer. If you do not respond in the alloted time, you could miss out. It is the seller's decision on whether or not they want their agent to reveal that there is another offer. It is a risk to the seller because some buyers may choose to not compete and then the seller is left without an offer at all.
There are many time sensitive deadlines throughout the home purchase process. You need a full time and experienced agent to guide you through all of the pitfalls. Stay in touch with your agent, especially when you have an offer submitted. The next call could be one that is the most important to receive!
Keep smiling!
Karen
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