The Colorado Springs real estate market is so incredibly favorable to homeowners who are deciding to sell right now. With historically low inventory, rising prices, and buyers coming from all over the country to live in our beautiful city, anybody who wants to sell their home in Colorado Springs or Monument right now has incredible leverage in the negotiation process.
It’s no secret that buyers are making offers with astronomical purchase prices for Colorado Springs homes. If you’ve been talking to Realtors, you might also know that buyers are waiving inspections and appraisals to make their offers more competitive.
But if you REALLY wanna put the screws to a buyer, and squeeze every potential dollar out of your home sale, here are 5 items that are typically paid for by a seller that are technically negotiable and can be turned into a buyer’s responsibility.
(Important note: Negotiating these things and asking a buyer to pay for them is a bit of a jerk move, and it may anger a lot of buyers and their agents. But that’s why you hire a Realtor. All communication goes through me so if they’re gonna yell at someone, they’re gonna yell at me. I’ve been yelled at before, I can take it. You’re totally insulated from the resulting scorn…)
- Title Insurance
Prior to a contract revision in 2013, the title insurance policy was written into the standard Colorado Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate as a seller cost, with no option to negotiate within the body of the contract.
The revision in 2013 created a negotiable choice. Buyer’s could choose the Title Insurance Company, and pay for their own title insurance policy.
Except in very rare circumstances, buyers usually write offers that check the box that says Seller Selects Title Insurance Company, and will furnish the owner’s title insurance policy at Seller’s expense.
Again, if our goal is to maximize your proceeds as the seller, we can send a counteroffer saying that the buyer can choose their title insurance company and pay for their own title policy!
Potential Savings: $700-2000
2. HOA Costs
If your community is managed by a Homeowners Association, a transfer of ownership is basically a whale fall for the HOA. They charge a bunch of fees associated with the sale of the house, and by default, buyer’s agents write offers that have the seller being responsible for those costs. The two big ones are the Status Letter, which tells the buyer what the HOA dues are and if the dues are current or not, and the very vague “transfer fees” which are basically a fee for the sake of charging a fee. Whether or not these fees should be charged in the first place is a topic for another article…but who pays them is totally negotiable! Here’s the section of the Colorado contract that determines who pays them:
Potential Savings: $250-800
3. Closing Services Fee
This is another case of “we do it this way because it’s always been done that way”. Typically, and customarily, the buyer and seller split the Closing Services Fee equally. But, like everything, that’s negotiable.
