Take that first early offer seriously. It's most likely the best opportunity you'll have to control your price and terms.

This video explains why.

Transcript

Often times when a seller puts their home on the market, they're prepared for a longer marketing period. They know that the market's experience and weakness over the last few years, and they think, "Well, this is gonna take some time."

Sometimes, especially when a seller has taken the time to properly prepare their home for sale, and they've hired a good agent who takes pride in presenting that home well and getting the word out in an effective way, sometimes a seller will receive offers fairly early on.

They sometimes tend to see that as a bad thing, they think they've made a mistake. Maybe they've underpriced the property. There's no way that this should've happened so quickly.

In fact, an offer that comes to you quickly is a sign that you've done things right, and you need to step back and think about the situation. Remember, you've done your due diligence prior to putting the home on the market. You've looked at what's for sale, you've looked at what's sold recently, and you've made a sound decision on how to price that property, and you've put all the work into preparing it well.

The fact is, is that the people who will look at your home over the first week, two weeks that it's on the market are the best prospects that you're going to show your home to over the whole time that your home is for sale. They've been in the market for a period of time. They've looked at everything that might meet their needs and they've found nothing yet, so they know that homes like yours are not a dime a dozen. They can see that they can move into this property, that it doesn't need a lot of work, and it's attractive to them so they make you a good offer.

Mark my words, your first offer is almost guaranteed to be your best offer. I've seen this scenario unfold a number of times over my 27 years in the business. A seller has this knee-jerk reaction, "Oh my God, I've made a mistake. "I need more time." They reject this offer outright, and they end up, two months down the road, incurring a whole bunch of additional expenses, looking at offers that aren't nearly as attractive.

Your first offer is almost always your best offer. Take it very seriously.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't counter offer, that you shouldn't try to negotiate a better deal for yourself, but know that you're dealing with the best buyers that you're likely to encounter the whole time that you're listed for sale.