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Do sellers have to disclose the terms of other offers?
So you are in the middle of
selling your home and everything is going well. At first there was only tentative interest by a large number of
people. However, it has now been just a
little over one month and now there are several people who have serious
interest in buying your home. Right now
you are in a great position as you now find yourself in an optimum
situation. The market value of your
home has increased, as there is now much more demand for your home than there
is supply. From this vantage point you
may even find yourself as the recipient of a bidding war among interested
homebuyers. However, one potential
homebuyer has asked about the specifics of an offer to buy your home from
another interested homebuyer. So what
do you do in this situation? The
question is basically: do sellers have to disclose the terms of other offers?
The answer is simple:
No. Prospective buyers do not have the
legal right to learn about the offers that other buyers have given to the
person selling their home. Conversely,
home sellers are not legally obliged to disclose the terms of offers given by
prospective buyers to another prospective buyer. The reason for this is because the housing market should operate
as a free market. Consequently, home
sellers have the right to try to increase the sale price of their home by
playing prospective buyers off each other.
However, homebuyers also have the right to pull out any offers that they
put forward. Therefore selling your
home can be a volatile situation making each sale of a home unique, much like
snowflakes.
By not disclosing the terms
of other offers, the individual selling their home is able to ascertain
unbiased values given to their home from potential customers. However, by revealing the terms of other
offers, the home seller may increase the sale price of their home by creating a
miniature price war among potential homebuyers.
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