The Offer Looks Perfect… So What Could Go Wrong?
On paper, it was a great offer: fair price, solid financing, pre-approval. But within five minutes, Jesse knew it was probably going to be a problem. The buyer's agent barely communicated, and that was the one thing the contract could never show.
After 20-plus years, Jesse has learned that how a deal starts usually previews how it's going to finish. Inspections came and the buyers asked for a ton. Then an appraiser called on a deal that was never supposed to have an appraisal. The buyer had changed lenders at basically the last possible moment. Deadlines were expiring, financing was restarting, and then the new loan got more expensive, so they asked the seller to lower the price to help pay for it.
We accepted the offer anyway, then held the line. On inspections, we pushed back until the requests got reasonable. When the buyers asked the seller to cover their more expensive loan with a lower price, the answer was a hard no. Eventually, we gave them one final deadline: close or we're done.
You're never evaluating only an offer. You're evaluating the people behind that offer, because it's the people behind the offer who make it actually perform.
The buyers funded in basically the final seconds of that last deadline, and the deal closed without the seller lowering the price.
Sometimes the biggest risk in a contract isn't written anywhere in the contract.












