OT <<<Deposit??>>>

Assuming you are selling and not renting:

Why are you involved in the deposit part of the transaction? Doesn't the buyer negotiate the deposit with their financial institution? That's the case in my experience. (Unless this is a cash exchange or self finance between you and the buyer. If that's the case, can I borrow some money? :-) ).

Now, if you are talking about earnest money ... well ... I sold my 200k house last year and got $2000.00 earnest money (non-refundable after the inspection was accepted) up front. After that, no $$ until closing.

Craig C.

I have always been told that you should have about 10% as a down/ deposit. Now, if it were my home and I was selling it myself, if some one offered me what you are suggesting, everything else being above board, I would not turn it away.

You'll know if you're dealing with someone serious if they're preapproved for a loan. If they have to jump thru all the hoops you may be waiting 30-45 days to find out. But in answer to your question, I'd think 5% on that amount would be good.

Denny

Selling

I think you might be thinking of a down payment. I'm talking about a deposit to hold the house and lock him into the deal. I don't want to turn away offers because I'm handcuffed and holding $1,500

I guess you can call it earnest money. I'm not going to tie up a 400K house for a couple of grand and turn away offers. I like Denny's deal much better.

Roy

Yup, that would do it for me.

Roy

I think that I can fairly say that you have a snowballs chance in hell of getting anything like that. $1500 is the going rate for a deposit on contract so unless your house is the only one in the area and worth about twice what you are asking for it, you will get no offers. Who in their right mind is going to tie up 25-30K on a house that they know nothing about and even if they did, how is it going to help you? The buyer could still be an idiot messing around that happens to have a lot of cash lying around and could still waste your time with unrealistic expectations after inspection and then drop the deal and get his money back anyway. Sometimes shit happens that may prevent the buyer form being able to close so why would they risk so much money? Would you??? I don't know of any responsible realtor that would allow their client to ever do such a thing as the risk is way to high.

Good point Tom. Just that Sue has put a deadline on selling the house regards her staying up here and teaching another year. I just don't want to be up here another year. So, I'm trying to find a way to really elminate the serious buyers from the dreamers.

I don't want to have to pass on offer's because I'm sitting waitng from some guy who is scratching his ass and jerking me around.

Then again I may be putting to much pressure on the whole thing in my desire to get the hell out of here this year.

With the current real estate slump in most of the U.S., I wish you luck. My house sat on the market for eight months and to get it sold, the real estate agents involved lowered their commissions to 1% from 3% after I reached my bottom dollar in the negotiations.

Craig C.

The problem is that there is no solid way to do that. As someone suggested, put in a pre-qualification requirement. This will eliminate a good portion of the dreamers.

I understand that as well. What you might want to consider is hiring a home inspector of your own to inspect your house right now. Make sure that he does a thorough job and then sit with him / her and go over it. See what he feels are real problems that other inspectors will jump on and that need to be addressed. Then show it to your realtor and ask what on there he / she sees as real sticking points on getting the sale that also need to be addressed and take care of them. Then you can decide what else you are willing to deal with and what markdowns you may need to make for what you don't do. Nothing is going to speed up the sale faster than the right house for the right price and you do have some control on both of those points.

I can't blame you for wanting to move on but applying too much pressure can actually slow down the process as it may scare away serious buyers. I would talk to your realtor and ask them what the average rate of sales in your area is. At least then you would have some idea of where you stand.

i agree with tom. i would place the pre-qulified buyers only restriction on it. i also think havig a pre-inspection done is an excellent idea. have the house all ready to go, get qualified buyers only, set the price reasonably and you will have your best chances to get it done quickly. craig had a good point too. home sales, at least on the west coast, are not as robust as they were a year ago. homes are selling but the average market time has gone up quite a bit. i think that tom's ideas give you the best chance to reduce that market time.

I'm aware of the situation with the real estate market. It is a want to sell not a need to sell. It is a unique house. I'm going in with it priced correctly for the market around here. The average here is about 90 day's. If it moves, great, if it doesn't we will try it again next year.

Roy

This entire house recieved a total remodleing, everything that could be was replaced was. All with the proper permits I'm not at all concerned about a inspection. The house is like new.

Very true. When we set the sale price I asked the realtor to come up with a price that the should move at. He sold my other house a couple of years ago in about 30 day's. He's real good with his estimates. It should prove interesting to be a interesting exercise. In a few weeks we will be back in FL and won't really be involved with it.

Did that this morning.

It is ready to go.

Done.

craig had a good point too. home sales, at

Yup, all of you have raised valid points. That's what I wanted and also why I asked. Thank you all!!

expectation?

Well, then it looks like you are ready to go and this is a good time of year for it as well. Good luck with the sale.

Thanks. As I said it should be interesting.