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Accepting an offer on your property

Accepting an offer on your property

Private Property South Africa
Cathy Nolan

Once an interested buyer has been found, a written offer to purchase will be prepared, usually on a standard, pre-printed form. Do not surprised if you are presented with offers that differ substantially from your asking price and make sure that your agent explains the process of receiving and reviewing offers.

Your agent must present all written offers that she has received to you for consideration. If several offers are brought to you at the same time, you are not obliged to accept any one offer over another.

Your agent will help you to understand the terms and conditions in the offer(s) to purchase and will also give you any advice that you need. At the end of the day, however, the decision to accept an offer or not is yours.

Before you make a decision you may want your agent to prepare an estimate of the cash proceeds that you will receive when the sale is complete. This will be based on:

  • The sale price that has been offered.

  • The financing arrangements that are contained in the offers.

  • The commission that you will have to pay to the agent.

  • The amount that you owe on the bond.

You are under no obligation to accept any offer from, or to make a counter-offer to, any potential buyer. Be aware, however, that if you reject an offer that exactly meets all the terms that you agreed to in the mandate, you are legally obliged to pay commission to the estate agency.

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