Never take a property off the market without money in hand
by Lynn Hahn
"They offered my asking price and said they could close in two weeks.
I took the property off the market, took down my signs, stopped the newspaper
ads and even turned away other buyers. Now three weeks have passed and
I cant even get the potential buyer to return my call". I have
heard similar stories many times.
There is a simple rule that we learned the hard way many years ago.
Never take a property off the market without money in hand!
I don't mean $100 dollars for earnest money. A hundred bucks will
not even cover your aggravation. Figure out what it is worth for you
to take a property off the market and get at least that much earnest money.
If I have a $1,000 monthly payment then I would never accept less than $1,000
as earnest money. At least, if the deal goes bad, I will cover a mortgage
payment.
Get as much earnest money as you possibly can. Are they serious about
buying the property? If so, they shouldn't mind coming up with some
serious earnest money.
You can also have installment earnest money agreements. For example,
let's say the buyer only wants to give you $500 today and you are giving them
ten days to inspect the property. Negotiate another $500 in earnest
money that is due and payable in ten days.
Make your earnest money NON-REFUNDABLE. In my contracts the earnest
money is NON-REFUNDABLE. If the buyer does not close he/she will not
get a refund. When I sell property "as-is", I tell the buyer to do their
inspections "before" signing the contract, because once they sign the contract
the earnest money is mine.
It is YOUR property and YOU must remain in control. Don't be fooled
by someone who "appears" that they have it all together. Just get the
money to protect yourself.
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