Will You Prioritize Certainty or Price When Selling Your Home?
Scott P. Rogers
Let's imagine you're selling your home and we listed it for $400,000.
We receive two offers:
Offer A: $400,000 -- contingent on a home inspection, a radon test, financing, and an appraisal.
Offer B: $375,000 -- no home inspection, no radon test, all cash and thus no financing or appraisal contingency.
Which one would you choose?
Would you prioritize certainty of sale and take the $375K offer, knowing there's very little that could derail it?
Or would you prioritize price, accepting the $400K offer, even though it still has four key hurdles to clear before getting to closing?
Now let's adjust things slightly...
If you chose the $400K offer with contingencies, would you feel differently if the more certain offer had been $390K instead?
If you initially leaned toward the $375K cash offer, what if that offer had been $350K -- would you still lean towards that offer?
Most home sellers put at least some amount of value on certainty -- knowing the deal is almost certainly going to go through. But how much is that certainty worth to you?
There's no one-size-fits-all answer here. Some sellers are willing to trade a bit of price for a smoother, more reliable transaction. Others are willing to take on some risk for the possibility of a higher sale price.
When you are selling your home, how will you prioritize certainty and price?
We receive two offers:
Offer A: $400,000 -- contingent on a home inspection, a radon test, financing, and an appraisal.
Offer B: $375,000 -- no home inspection, no radon test, all cash and thus no financing or appraisal contingency.
Which one would you choose?
Would you prioritize certainty of sale and take the $375K offer, knowing there's very little that could derail it?
Or would you prioritize price, accepting the $400K offer, even though it still has four key hurdles to clear before getting to closing?
Now let's adjust things slightly...
If you chose the $400K offer with contingencies, would you feel differently if the more certain offer had been $390K instead?
If you initially leaned toward the $375K cash offer, what if that offer had been $350K -- would you still lean towards that offer?
Most home sellers put at least some amount of value on certainty -- knowing the deal is almost certainly going to go through. But how much is that certainty worth to you?
There's no one-size-fits-all answer here. Some sellers are willing to trade a bit of price for a smoother, more reliable transaction. Others are willing to take on some risk for the possibility of a higher sale price.
When you are selling your home, how will you prioritize certainty and price?
