Sell My House Privately

The Conditional Offer

Let's set the scene. "I am going to sell my house privately" you have announced to everyone. Everything so far has gone smooth.

A buyer that viewed your house last evening is now sitting at the kitchen table with you, offer in hand.

Great! You look over the offer carefully and everything looks fine. The price is right, closing date good, the subject to lawyer review clause is inserted. Looking good.

Then you see the extra attached form with the clause concerning the SPP. Subject to the Sale of the Purchaser's Property.

I promised you that I would try to cover everything that could occur in sell my house privately and this, is just another example of "tips to sell house."

Should I Even Consider a SPP?

You actually have an advantage accepting a SPP when for sale by owner.

Here is why. First, keep in mind that this is based on my experience when I was a real estate agent, so there is a chance that in your area, the rules may be different.

When a real estate agent receives a SPP, they are required to report that offer to the real estate board, when they are a member of said board.

You on the other hand as a sell my house privately member do not. Follow? OK, in case you don't catch the significance of this, let me try to explain.

Do as I Say, Not as I Do

Once the real estate agent has reported the SPP to the MLS board, within a short period of time that information is transmitted to all the board members.

All the real estate agents now know there is a SPP offer on the property.

In a perfect world, that should mean absolutely nothing. Why? All the agents should continue to show the property in question, until perhaps one of their buyers puts in an offer.

At that time if accepted, they wait for the SPP to be released, or the first buyer makes their offer firm and binding.

Now I said, a perfect world. My experience? Don't happen that way. Here is what usually happens.

* A certain percentage of real estate agents show the property.

* A certain percentage of agents tell their buyers. "Oh that property has an offer on it. There is no sense in viewing that house".

* A certain percentage of agents don't even report the SPP. I don't really blame the agents that do this because they do it because of the 2nd point above.

The problem is, they are breaking the real estate rules. This type of tactic then becomes unfair to the real estate agents that show the house, without knowing there is a conditional offer in place.

Now, Your Advantage

You have absolutely no obligation to tell anyone, that you have a SPP in place, until they actually bring you an offer. In fact, may I suggest you just keep quiet about the SPP offer.

When a buyer puts in a SPP offer,unless they receive an UNCONDITIONAL offer on their property, they will have to release the property to the 2nd buyer that doesn't have a house to sell.

If the 2nd offer is also a SPP offer, you can accept that offer as well, subject to the release of the first SPP.

If the 2nd SPP offer receives an unconditional offer on their house first, they can lift their condition subject to the first buyer releasing their offer.

Clear as Mud?

* Buyer #1 puts in an offer subject to sale of house #1.

* Buyer #2 puts in an offer after buyer #1, subject to sale of house #2.

* Buyer #2 receives an unconditional offer on house #2.

* You inform buyer #1 of the offer from buyer #2 and the clock starts ticking. You had a clause inserted that buyer #1 had say 48 hours to either, make their offer firm and binding, or release the house to a second buyer.

* Buyer #1 has no offers on their house and makes their offer null and void Buyer #2 is now free to close the deal.

* Buyer #2 becomes the proud owner of your house and you receive your funds at closing.

You calculate the huge savings of sell my house privately by not having to pay a real estate broker a big fat commission.

* You go to your favorite restaurant for a celebration dinner.

The SPP Clause

I will not write out an actual SPP clause that you might use for a sell my house privately offer.

I suggest you obtain the proper forms or clauses from one of the sources I listed at Where do You Acquire these Forms

I will suggest it should cover the following:

* Subject to the unconditional sale of Purchaser's Property.

* The address of the property to be sold.

* The date the property is to be sold by.

* What happens if you the seller, receives another offer, conditional or unconditional. This should include notification to Purchaser or Purchaser's Lawyer.

* The time frame the Purchaser has to either remove the condition or null and void the contract. Make this short, perhaps 24 or 48 hours from notification.

* What happens to the Purchaser's deposit if contract deemed null and void. Normally returned in full.

This is just a rough outline of this tip to sell house should you decide to write the clause yourself.

Does the 2nd Offer have to be Better?

Short answer: No.

Just be Careful

When you conduct real estate business, doing it in the sell my house privately way, you need to take some precautions.

Just to refresh you go to: Subject to Lawyer Approval Clause

Back already?

Just ALWAYS include that clause you just read on the other page OK?

* One for you, the Seller.

* One for them, the Buyer.

If you secure the services of a residential real estate lawyer and have him or her go over the contract with you, there should be no reason for concern.

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