Comparing Offers on a House: Price Is Not the Answer
The highest number is not reliably the best offer, and sellers who pick on price alone lose weeks to deals that were never going to close. Comparing offers properly means reading five terms besides the price. Here they are, in the order they decide whether you get to closing.
Comparing offers starts with the financing
Cash, conventional, FHA or VA, and the difference is not snobbery. Cash removes the appraisal and the lender timetable, which are the two commonest ways a deal dies. A conventional loan with twenty per cent down is strong. FHA and VA bring condition requirements the house has to satisfy, so peeling paint or a missing handrail can become a condition of closing. Ask for the pre-approval letter. Then check whether it is an approval or a prequalification, because those are not the same document and only one of them means anything was verified.
Comparing offers by the deposit each one carries
A deposit is the cost of walking away, so its size is a measure of commitment rather than a fee. Twenty-five thousand on a $400,000 house means something. Two thousand means the buyer can change their mind for the price of a weekend. Ask when it goes hard, meaning the date after which they forfeit it. A large deposit that stays refundable until closing is a large number doing no work at all.
The inspection period is the real escape hatch
Under the Florida as-is contract the buyer may cancel within a stated number of days at their own discretion and take the deposit back. A fifteen-day period is three times the exposure of a five-day one. So a full-price offer with a long inspection period is weaker than a slightly lower one with a short period. This single term is the thing sellers most often overlook. It is also the one a buyer agent will have thought about carefully.
Comparing offers on whether the closing date is real
A buyer with a mortgage does not control their own closing date; their lender does. An offer promising to close in fourteen days with financing is usually promising something somebody else has to deliver. Three to six weeks is realistic for a financed purchase. Two weeks is realistic for cash. A date that is too aggressive does not usually mean a fast closing. It means an extension request in week three.
Comparing offers on net, not on price
Write each one out as a net figure. Start from the price, subtract what you are offering the buyer agent, subtract any closing costs the buyer is asking you to cover, subtract any repair credit already built in, and subtract the fixed costs you pay either way. An offer at $405,000 with three per cent in seller concessions nets less than one at $395,000 with none. The headline numbers say the opposite, which is the point of doing the arithmetic.
Contingencies beyond the inspection
A financing contingency is normal and expected, and an offer without one from a buyer who clearly needs a mortgage is not a stronger offer but a less honest one. A sale-of-another-home contingency is a different animal, because it makes your closing depend on a transaction you cannot see and have no control over. An appraisal contingency sits inside the financing one in practice, so a buyer who cannot get the valuation they need is usually protected by the financing clause whether or not the word appraisal appears anywhere in the contract. Read for anything unusual. A long period to review association documents, or a condition about selling something else first. Price the uncertainty rather than ignoring it.
What a cash offer is really worth
Certainty, and it charges for it. No appraisal, no underwriting, often a short inspection period or none, and a closing date the buyer actually controls. That is genuinely valuable if you have a deadline. The offer arrives below market because the buyer is pricing in resale margin and repairs. Decide whether the gap is worth the weeks. Do it with the comparable closed prices in front of you rather than in the abstract, because in the abstract speed always sounds cheap.
Watch for an assignable contract
A wholesaler puts the house under contract intending to sell the contract to somebody else rather than to buy it. The signs are consistent. An assignment clause. A small deposit. A long inspection period. And a cash offer from somebody asking very few questions about the property. Ask directly whether the contract may be assigned and who is funding the purchase. An evasive answer to either question is the answer.
Comparing offers when several arrive at once
Set a deadline, tell everyone the same thing, and ask for best terms by it. Do not reveal the contents of one offer to another buyer, because that reputation travels among agents faster than you would expect. You are allowed to counter more than one. Be careful not to accidentally accept two, because an acceptance is an acceptance. Signing a second while the first is live is how sellers end up in a real dispute.
How to counter without losing the buyer
Counter on one or two terms, not on seven. A counter that rewrites the whole offer reads as a rejection and frequently gets treated as one. If the price is close but the inspection period is long, counter the period and leave the price. If the price is low but the terms are excellent, counter the price only. Respond inside the time the offer allows. A late counter is just an offer to somebody who has already moved on.
Comparing offers: the one you should probably take
Strong financing or cash, a deposit large enough to hurt, a short inspection period, a closing date the buyer can control, and a net you can live with. It will rarely be the highest number on the table. Sellers who learn this tend to learn it the expensive way. They accept the top offer in week two and relist in week seven, with a failed deal now attached to the listing history for every buyer agent to see.
Comparing offers you want to decline politely
Most of them, in practice, and how you decline matters more than sellers expect. Buyer agents work the same few neighbourhoods for years and talk to each other, so a seller who ignores offers or responds rudely acquires a reputation that costs real money later in the listing. Reply within the time the offer allows. Say no plainly, without explaining your reasoning in detail, and say whether a different number or different terms would interest you. An offer you decline this week is occasionally the offer that comes back improved in three weeks, and only if the door was left open.
Once you accept, the clock starts
Sign the payoff authorisation that week. Get the association details to the closing agent so the estoppel letter can be ordered. Let the title and lien search run. Keep the house insured and maintained until the deed records, and expect a final walkthrough shortly before closing. Most of what delays a Florida closing is something ordered late rather than something that went wrong.
Offers: common questions
How do I compare offers on my house?
Write each as a net figure, then read five terms: the financing type, the deposit size and when it goes hard, the length of the inspection period, the closing date, and any contingencies. Those decide whether an offer closes; the price only decides what it pays.
Should I always take the highest offer?
No. A full-price offer with a long inspection period, a small deposit and a sixty-day financing contingency is weaker and slower than a slightly lower one with cash or a large deposit and a short period.
What is a good earnest money deposit in Florida?
There is no required figure, so judge it as a proportion of the price and ask when it becomes non-refundable. A deposit that stays refundable until closing is not providing the commitment its size suggests.
How do I handle multiple offers by owner?
Set a deadline, tell every party the same thing, and ask for best terms by it. Do not disclose one offer to another buyer. Take care not to accept two, because signing a second while the first is live creates a genuine dispute.
Can I counter more than one offer at a time?
Yes, but carefully, because an acceptance of your counter binds you. Counter on one or two terms rather than rewriting the offer, and respond within the time the offer allows or it lapses.