Nuisance Requests Can Pollute Your Offer
Consider This Scenario:
You make an offer on a great Philadelphia condo. You are pre-approved, you are putting 20% down, your ducks are in a row, and you are presenting a clean offer. No goofy contingencies in sight. All normal and standard- mortgage, home contingency, etc. Then you ask the seller (who has already packed up, and moved to the other side of nowhere, perhaps), and you request that the seller power wash the stucco in the patio area.
I would suggest that asking the seller to spend $175 is not necessarily a bad idea, but asking him to do something that is clearly a nuisance to him can really emotionally cripple your offer. Remember, it is not only the sale price that determines a sellers Openness to your offer. Terms and conditions play a huge part. The easier you can make it on a seller, the bigger the impact of your offer may be.
Nuisance requests come in all forms. My suggestion is that you keep the offer as clean and easy on the seller as possible. Reduce your offer by $175 (shy of what would be your “highest and best offer”) and make it easy on the seller. Like you, he is probably worried, burdened, and has a million things on his mind. And you making a deal clean and easy may benefit you well beyond that $175.
Suck it up, and make it a clean deal. Your offer may be contingent upon it, especially if you are in a mulitple offer situation!
Mark Wade
www.CenterCityCondos.com
Prudential Fox and Roach REALTORS®
530 Walnut St., Suite 260 Philadelphia, PA 19106
