Are you planning to list your house this summer? If you live in a city with limited home inventory and huge arrays of motivated buyers, this might just be the time to list your house. In a sellers’ market, every home receives multiple offers but not all of these buyers are equally dedicated towards making the purchase. For a successful sale, you should be able to differentiate between a motivate homebuyer and a window shopper.

You are likely to receive multiple offers and letters from potential buyers. The first thing that you need to understand is to avoid falling for emotional pleas of the buyers. These pleas are likely to turn into negotiations after the home inspection. An interested buyer would provide their financial settlement structure and earnest money deposit instead of putting all their efforts in writing an offer letter.

The most important part of a real estate transaction is loan approval and you can start by doing some research about your buyer’s lender. It might take anywhere between 4 to 8 weeks in the overall approval process. Find out the average approval time of the lender and ask about some personal details of your buyer. You can ask you lender to help in the process and find out the current credit standing of the buyer.

Every real estate agent has some specific guidelines for negotiations and handling the overall process. It is best to know the buyer’s agent upfront and the negotiation tactics he/she is likely to use.

One of the most important aspects of the process is to set real expectations. Find out the amount that you are willing to settle for and consider buyers who make a similar offer. Keep in mind that a buyer making significantly higher offer is likely to negotiate after home inspection. The best strategy is to start with an upper limit and come down slightly to adjust as per buyer’s final offer.

Another negotiation tactic that you can use is to offer something critical during negotiations. If you are aware of some necessary repairs in your house, offer to repair them during negotiation and it will give you an upper hand in the discussion. However, make sure to mention these repairs in property disclosures.

The key to a successful property sale is to cooperate with the buyer and provide documents in a timely manner. Providing documents at the right time will make the process smoother and build better relations with buyer.

Maintain healthy communication with your agent and ask them to help you choose a befitting offer.