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Sooner or later (assuming your home is priced correctly and marketed properly), a prospective buyer will "make an offer." You will have three options: (1) Accept the Offer to Buy, making no changes. (2) Turn-down the Offer in its entirety. (3) Make a so called Counter Offer. A counter offer is normally made in an attempt to persuade the buyer to increase his offer price. For example, the house may be listed for sale say at $275,000, the offer is for $245,000 and you counter at $260,000, meaning you are willing to come down $15,000 providing the buyer will increase his offer by $15,000.

You should be aware when making a counter offer to a buyer there is a good possibility he may simply decide to "walk-away". Sometimes this will occur resulting from so-called "buyers remorse" (a surprisingly common occurrence). He may also walk-away possibly because he genuinely can not come up with more money, or perhaps he believes he will not qualify for a larger home loan, etc. You should be aware that according to Real Estate Contract Law, a Counter Offer has the effect of voiding an Original Offer. Other common reasons for Counter Offers are occupancy/closing date issues, mortgage financing contingencies, subject to sale of buyer's old home clause, or subjects like appliances and personal property, etc. These subjects can become quite involved. These are all areas where the knowledge of a licensed Real Estate Agent becomes indispensable for a successful sale to take place.

Upon your acceptance of an Offer to Buy your house, there are a number of important items to be performed. Things like Property Inspection of the home by a Home Inspector, an appraisal of the home by the lender's Real Estate Appraiser. In the meantime, the Real Estate Title Company will be very busy checking the property title for liens, other encumbrances, recorded deeds, deed restrictions, real estate property taxes & assessments, HOA disclosures, mechanics liens, judgments, etc.

Legal representation at the "Closing" is very common in many areas of the U.S.A. In fact it's extremely rare not to hire an attorney for a residential real estate closing in most states, the Midwest, Southern & Eastern States in particular. However, an attorney being present at a typical home Real Estate Closing seems to be rare in the State of Arizona. It is customary here in Arizona for the Title Company to handle most everything at the closing. This seems to work extremely well. This common practice will have a benefit of saving you from paying legal fees when you buy or sell homes in Arizona. Of course, this in no way precludes the Buyer or Seller from seeking the services of an Attorney. However, as odd as this sounds to people from many other states, you may have some difficulty finding an Arizona Attorney for a real estate closing as many lawyers when asked, will not even know why you would want this legal service, let alone be able or willing to perform the service!

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