Too Good to Be True

Our clients are very well informed when they receive a purchase offer. We do a lot of investigation and we use our wealth of knowledge to present our clients with the pros and cons associated with an offer. If the buyer is getting a loan, we will contact the lender to make sure that the lender has confidence in the buyer's ability to get the loan. If the buyer is paying cash, we will make sure that a proof of funds is provided. We will also review the type of loan that the buyer is getting and how that may impact the requirements and timing of the sale.

We had a client who was selling a manufactured home. We received a cash offer on the property. The offer was low and the seller countered. After sending the counter, we received another offer which was full price, but with an FHA loan. At the same time, the first buyer countered the seller's counter offer, so the seller was free to either counter the first offer or to accept the second offer.

Frankly, the property was priced a little high. We had little confidence that it would appraise near the list price. FHA loans are very restrictive and can be fraught with issues. Not only would the house have to appraise for more than we expected it would, there would also be a home inspection that might require the seller to make certain repairs, there would be a termite inspection that could require the seller to re-grade portions of the property even if there were no termites, and the property would have to be retrofit with an anchoring system to meet FHA foundation guidelines. We informed our clients of these possibilities.

Our clients decided to go with the cash offer. We called the agent with the cash offer, told her that we had a full price offer with a loan, and suggested that she could withdraw her last counter offer and accept the seller's original counter offer. That agent took our advice and the sale closed a couple of weeks later.