By Living Room Realty, June 1, 2023
Congrats to our buyer J for the successful close of his dream home, in his dream neighborhood, of Lake O!
Let’s have a quick chat about closing timelines: nowadays, its rare to encounter sellers wanting a longer close (than the typical 30 days). This case was a little different. The house was truly decorated like a museum, and they needed time to be able to move all of their worldly possessions out and patch the walls for the new owner.
More often than not, in competitive scenarios we’re seeing cash closes of two weeks, sometimes even three week closes on financed transactions – such short timelines for all that goes into such a big purchase!
Occasionally, a seller prefers either a longer close, or “rent back” period (when the home closes on a typical timeline but then the seller “rents” the home back from the new owner).
In general, it is most advantageous for buyers to be amenable to the timeline of the sellers when writing offers, whether or not there’s competition: if it’s not a match, the seller will either reject the offer or accept with a sour taste in their mouth going into the transaction.
In this case, the seller didn’t mind waiting for the funds (or didn’t need the funds to be able to move forward with their next home purchase) and didn’t want to deal with the nuances of a “rent back”, so we adjusted to a longer close. It allowed for a comfortable inspection period and a cushy timeline for back and forth communications – what a change of pace in this crazy market! It was also just the concession needed to get our offer accepted $50k UNDER list price !!
Thankfully, buyers don’t get any cooler (or more reasonable) than J, who was uber flexible on timelines and understood what it would take to make his homeownership goals a reality.
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to discuss more in depth how closing timelines can help to inform your offer-writing strategy as a buyer.
