Seller's question- pre-qual letter?

[Roselvr]

Originally Posted by Gretchen B

You could do that, but you might be turning away some very qualified buyers. We have alot of cash buyers around here. They won't be needing a loan and won't have a "pre-qual" letter. Some buyers can obtain a loan easily, have bought and sold many houses, but maybe they just haven't called their lender (or chosen a lender) yet. And let's face it, some very qualified buyers are just plain insulted that someone would want a pre-qual letter before they look at the home. The last thing an agent wants to do is show houses to unqualified buyers. I guess gauging the ability and motivation of your client is something that comes with experience. It's usually the first time and low-end buyer that you need to make sure they're qualified (pre-approved is even better). Once you get to a certain price range, though, pre-qualification is usually a non-issue.

You know, if you've got a very high-end home or are getting so many showings that you feel it's a pain and you want to limit the number of showings, the in-hand pre-qual letter would do that. I find, though, that most sellers these days are just happy to have any showings at all. The last thing they want to do is turn away a potential buyer.

My husband laughed last week when I mentioned to him that some sellers wanted a pre-qual letter. He pretty much said there are more then enough houses to look at, good luck to them selling.

The last agent I had (she was selling our house) she knew how much we owed on it and how much we'd take home after a sale. From speaking to us, she knew our income. Not once did she question houses I requested to look at. There may have been 1 or two that were a little over what we wanted to spend, but were over priced, even my agent said so. There was one I would have bought but it had a contract on it the day before, but they still let us see it. Unfortunatly, the deal didn't fall through.

[doni]

Believe it or not our market is a little localized pocket where things didn't totally tank.
I think it went down 1 % last year. Market is on the up swing here. We are selling FSBO
and had the house appraised last week. We are not asking for more than appraisal. Husband sold real estate for 7 years so we should be able to go this one alone. It is not my intention to offend a prospective buyer. But I have seen neighbours be inconvinienced by people just wanting to get in to "See" and I'm not into that. That's the only reason I asked about pre-qual letter.

[shellytc]

Doni, if you are going FSBO, then yes, you should ask for the pre-approval. You have no other way of knowing if the prospective buyer is who they say they are....lot's of crazies out there. I would also request to look at their ID to make sure it matches the pre-approval, and you have some way of knowing that they are who they say they are. Finally, I would have a sign in book, and request them to put their name and contact information for you to be able to contact them in the future, and also make sure they are who they say they are.

Good luck.

shelly