The Best Offer Isn’t Always the Highest Offer

Receiving an offer on your home is exciting—but the price at the top of the contract is only part of the story.

At the Moving Memphis Group at Emmett Baird Realty, we help our sellers evaluate the entire offer so they understand not only what a buyer is offering, but also the terms, potential risks and how those details could affect their bottom line and likelihood of successfully reaching closing.

Led by Tracie Benetz, a full-time Tennessee REALTOR® since 2013 with more than $187 million in career real estate sales, our team brings extensive negotiation and transaction experience to the table.

Understanding the Entire Offer

When an offer arrives, we’ll review it with you carefully and explain the important terms in plain language.

Depending on the offer, we’ll evaluate factors such as:

• Purchase price
• Type of financing
• Earnest money
• Buyer-requested closing costs or concessions
• Inspection terms
• Appraisal considerations
• Financing contingencies
• Requested closing date
• Possession
• Personal property requests
• Sale-of-home contingencies
• Other terms or conditions that could affect the transaction

A higher-priced offer containing significant concessions or greater risk isn’t necessarily better than a slightly lower offer with stronger terms.

Our job is to help you understand the difference.

Looking Beyond the Purchase Price

We want our sellers to understand what an offer may actually mean to them financially.

We’ll help you evaluate the proposed price along with concessions and other terms so you can better understand the offer as a whole.

We’ll also discuss potential areas of concern.

For example, does the financing appear solid? Could the property face an appraisal challenge at the offered price? Is the buyer asking for significant concessions? Are there contingencies that could make the transaction less certain?

No offer is completely risk-free, but experience can help identify potential issues before you make a decision.

Accept, Reject or Counter?

Ultimately, you decide whether to accept, reject or counter an offer.

Our role is to give you the information and professional guidance you need to make that decision confidently.

If a counteroffer makes sense, we’ll help develop a negotiation strategy based on your priorities, the strength of the buyer, current market conditions and any other interest in the property.

Sometimes that means negotiating price. Other times, the most valuable improvements may involve closing costs, contingencies, timing or other terms.

Multiple Offers

When more than one buyer is interested in your home, evaluating the offers becomes even more important.

We’ll help you compare the offers side-by-side and look beyond the headline price to evaluate their overall strengths and potential risks.

The goal isn’t simply to choose the biggest number.

The goal is to identify the offer and terms that best align with your priorities and give you confidence moving forward.

Experienced Negotiation Matters

Real estate negotiations don’t always end when an offer is accepted.

Inspections, repairs, appraisal issues and other circumstances can create additional negotiations before closing.

Having an experienced real estate team representing you throughout the transaction matters.

We’ll communicate with you, explain your options and advocate for your interests from the first offer through the closing table.

Moving Memphis Group at Emmett Baird Realty
Service You Deserve – People You Trust.

Contact us to talk with us about selling your Memphis-area home.