If you’ve made an offer, or are planning on making one on a house, here are some reasons that the seller might refuse your offer. It’s not always personal, even though it might seem that way at times.
Keep these in the back of your mind if you ever have an offer rejected by the seller.
You price was unacceptable. Your normally hear of sellers that will counter-offer your offer if it is lower than they’d like. This is common practice. However, if your offer is incredibly low, there is a chance that the seller has become insulted and doesn’t want to consider your offer. Be careful when making low-ball offers, no one is telling you that you have to pay full price, however, if you’re really interested in the house, make a reasonable offer and show the sellers you want their home.
Your terms were unacceptable. Maybe you don’t want to close for four more months, but the seller has to move in two. Or, if there are other contingencies in there, the seller might not be able to give in on some of them, it’s not personal against you, it just doesn’t work out for everyone involved.
You’re not pre-approved. A good real estate agent will counsel their sellers not to accept an offer that isn’t accompanied by a pre-approval letter. Your seller will want some kind of assurance that you’ve spoken to the bank and their home is in your price range. By taking the home off the market, and waiting to see if you can buy it, they are losing a lot of market time and risk losing other offers. Be prepared when you go in to write an offer.
While not common in today’s market, it’s still possible there was another offer that came in on the same house that was a higher price or better terms. Additionally, while unfortunate, it’s possible the listing agent had a buyer of his or her own that they’ve asked the seller to accept. If a home is priced right, even in a buyer’s market the sellers might have to consider multiple offers.
Buying a home can be a long process as you search constantly for that right home to appear. Don’t risk losing the home of your dreams; take all of this into mind as you write up your offer! If you didn’t get your offer accepted, it’s possible that you can go back to the sellers with another offer. Try to find out their reasons for not accepting yours, so you can improve upon that the next time.