Is That a Good Offer on My Home? 

What you see below is the typical “offer analysis” that I complete for every homeowner when we receive an offer. In this case, the home was located in East Cobb. I want to make certain that you are completely informed as to the current market, how your home compares, and how the offer shakes out according to the data. From there, we’ll discuss the offer, evaluate your options, and move forward. In this case, the data referenced was provided with this write up and not shown here. You can also see another brief by CLICKING HERE.

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OK – looking at this in “black & white”, here’s how the data and the facts break out. I just sent a link for this data; the homes you’ll see are functionally equivalent to yours:

1. minimum 5BR, 3B homes

2. all two story homes

3. all Pope HS homes

4. all with finished basements

5. sold homes closed since Jan 06

6. price range is 425K – 475K which brackets your home

7. all home sales are in East Cobb

Key facts:

1. Of the homes currently listed, the average price reduction for the group is 2.6%.

2. Of the 8 currently listed, 5 have been previously listed (incl yours).

3. There have been 11 sales since 01/06.

4. The average list to sale price ratio is 96.5% (selling at 96.5% of asking price).

5. Average closing costs paid by seller is $4200.

Other factors to consider:

1. The major difference between your previous listing and this listing is addition of the granite and a few cosmetic repairs.

2. Of the approximately 10 agents through, 7 have commented that the price is on the high side given the likelihood of buyers wanting to pull paper and cosmetically update. Mary spoke to two that had showed it the first time and both commented that while the granite was a good move, increasing the price 20K is unjustified as that was the only significant change.

3. A few agents have noted the driveway as a deal killer to their buyers – two agents passed on the house from the curb.

4. We’re on the second pass with the house; it’s already been listed and expired. The fact that it’s expired once (granted that agent was a dud) needs to be kept in mind. It’s important that we make every effort to get it sold this time through – now is the buy season and if it expires and has to be relisted again, agents will look at it and wonder if there are unseen issues.

The numbers; I took the numbers derived from the data pulled and applied it to your home. What we see:

1. Using $469,900 as the base, a 96.5% list to sale ratio gives us $453,454 as an indicated sale price. Including the average closing cost of $4200 indicates a final selling price of $449.253, (469,900 x .965 – 4200).

2. As we discussed, the idea of you doing some of the cosmetic work was tossed around. You mentioned that you might consider a 10K allowance to a buyer to do the work. If we take that 10K off the top and use $459,900 as a base and apply the same factors as above, we get an indicated sale price of $439,603, (459,900 x .965 – 4200).

My opinions:

1. The comments made by the agents that showed your home last time and again this time are valid – the only major change was the granite. As we discussed when we initially met, the wild card in this was the poor job of marketing that was done the first time – we didn’t really know if price was an issue as it wasn’t properly marketed. Now we have enough data to say that we are in fact on the high end – while it’s not being disqualified on price, price is being noted.

2. We’ve also discussed the expectation that buyers will want to do cosmetics. As I’ve said, I prefer that you not try and anticipate their desires but rather leave that to them to handle. I think 10K in cosmetics is reasonable for wallpaper removal, paint, and other miscellaneous work.

So – while this offer is initially low (as to be expected), we can’t take it personally. Working in our favor is the fact that they have several young kids, are living in a small executive suite, are a relo so they’re qualified and they like the house.

The offer itself is uneventful, they’re not asking for anything crazy – price is going to be the main negotiating point. They are not asking for any closing costs either. Note the quick closing date as well.

Their offer is 420,000 with 10,000 as a cosmetic allowance – net 410,000. Using the above numbers as a guide, if we can get you in the range of netting 435-440 I think it’s a very sold deal. I know if something like this was presented last listing period, it would have been very attractive.

Give me a call and we’ll review everything in the contract and war game this proposal.

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We closed 33 days later, net 442K to the seller.

Does your listing agent provide this detailed analysis?