Time is of the Essence

We recently had an agent submit an offer and receive a counteroffer. This led to a false sense of confidence and the agent thought it was a done deal. However, before their clients signed the counteroffer, the seller then received another offer. Luckily it worked out in the end, but that home very well could have gone to another buy due to a lack of urgency. It might seem obvious, but this "time is of the essence" mentality is a critical aspect of the business that can sometimes get brushed aside. Understanding and keeping track of what time frames are important should become second nature to you as an agent. The acceptance deadline, inspection period, contingency resolution, funding, etc. If you aren't on top of these time frames, you are putting your clients at significant risk. Get ahead of things by setting a deadline for a deadline. If your loan commitment deadline is Wednesday, then set an internal deadline of Monday.