Stop 4 of 8 · Daily
Offers and counters
Three offers turned into one comparison the seller can read, the counter explained in plain English, and not a single number Claude produced.
Sunday night, three offers
Three packets arrive between six and nine, each thirty or more pages, each with the terms scattered across four forms and an addendum. The seller wants to talk at nine. The work is not judgement, it is extraction, and it is exactly where a careful reader who does not get tired is worth having.
What Daniel keeps is the ranking. Claude builds the grid and finds what is missing. He decides what the grid means, because that is what the licence is for.
What the grid compares
| Column | Why it decides anything |
|---|---|
| Price, deposit, and what is due when | The seller's real proceeds and the buyer's real skin |
| Financing type, lender, pre-approval attached | Whether it closes, and how a low appraisal plays out |
| Contingency periods and close date | How long the house is off the market if it fails |
[upload the three offer packets] Compare these offers for my seller in one table: price, deposit and when it is due, financing type and lender, whether a pre-approval or proof of funds is attached, contingency periods for inspection, appraisal and loan, close date, occupancy after closing, and anything unusual in an addendum. Quote the figures exactly as written and cite the form and page for each. Then a short list of what is missing or ambiguous in each offer that I should ask about tonight. Do not rank them, do not recommend one, and do not estimate anything that is not on the page.
We are countering offer two. The seller's terms are: price [price from the net sheet], repair credit [amount], close date [date], and the sale of the buyer's condo comes out as a contingency. Write two things. First, four sentences to the buyer's agent stating the counter plainly and the response deadline. Second, six sentences to my seller explaining what each change does for them and what risk it adds. Use only the numbers I gave you. No new terms.
The buyer on [Cortez] asked why an appraisal contingency matters when they are putting a large amount down. Explain it in five sentences at a level someone buying their first house understands, using their own situation, with no rate, no payment and no dollar figure. End with the one question they should ask me.
The offer that loses
The reply to a losing offer is worth writing properly, because the agent on the other side sends you their next buyer. Short, specific about what the seller weighed, no consolation language and nothing about the winning offer's terms.
Write four sentences to the agent whose offer my seller did not accept on [Cortez]. Say plainly that the seller went another way, name the two things the seller weighted most heavily in general terms, thank them for a clean packet, and ask them to send me their next buyer in the area. Do not reveal any term of the accepted offer and do not say the property may come back.