Sellers rarely ask this question until they have had a few showings. Somebody walked through, said all the right things, told you where their couch would go, and then never came back. That stings, and it makes the next round of feedback harder to trust.
Here is the honest answer: you cannot read seriousness from enthusiasm at a showing. You read it from three things that are all verifiable on paper.
1. Is the buyer represented?
An unrepresented buyer is not automatically unserious. But a buyer who has already chosen a Realtor and signed a representation agreement has committed real intent to the process before ever seeing your house.
That matters practically, not just symbolically. A represented buyer has someone helping them understand contract deadlines, inspection windows, financing contingencies, and what a reasonable offer looks like in your neighborhood. That is the difference between a contract that closes and a contract that unravels in week three over something nobody explained.
Compensation for a buyer's Realtor is negotiable and gets addressed in the offer itself. Your listing Realtor should walk you through how any request for concessions affects your bottom line before you respond. If you want to see how those pieces hit your net, run the numbers with our net proceeds calculator and then talk through the real version with your Realtor.
2. Is there a real pre-approval, and from whom?
An offer without financing documentation is not an offer. It is a conversation.
But not all pre-approvals carry the same weight, and this is where a lot of sellers get fooled. There is a meaningful difference between a two-line pre-qualification generated from self-reported numbers online and a full underwritten pre-approval where a lender has actually reviewed income, assets, and credit.
Ask your Realtor to do two things with any offer that comes in:
- Read the letter carefully. Does it name a specific loan amount and program, or is it vague?
- Call the lender. A three minute conversation tells you whether documentation has been collected or whether the buyer filled out a form last night.
Local lenders we work with pick up the phone and give a straight answer. That call is one of the more valuable things a listing Realtor does and most sellers never see it happen.
3. Are the terms consistent with the story?
This is the one people get wrong. The instinct is to look at price alone, and price is only part of the picture.
A buyer who says they love your house and then asks for a ninety day closing, a large repair allowance, and a contingency on selling their current home has told you something real about where they are. That is not bad faith. It might be a perfectly good buyer with a real timeline problem. But the terms are the truth, and the compliments are not.
Look at the whole structure: earnest money, financing type, inspection period length, closing date, contingencies. Terms that line up with what the buyer says they want signal a serious party. Terms that contradict it signal someone testing the water.
About lowball offers
The old advice was to ignore them. We think that is a mistake.
Counter every offer. Always. A low offer costs you nothing to respond to, and a surprising number of them move substantially when a seller counters with a reasonable number and a clear explanation. The buyers who were never serious will disappear on their own, and you will have lost nothing but a signature.
What a run of low offers actually tells you is usually about the price, not the buyers. If your Little Rock home has had steady showings and every offer comes in well under list, the market is giving you information. Chase says it this way: "There's no greater advertising effort than a good price."
What sellers should actually do
Most of the anxiety here comes from being on the receiving end of a process you cannot see. So make it visible.
- Require a pre-approval letter with any offer. State it in the listing remarks so it is expected.
- Have your Realtor call the lender on every offer, not just the ones that concern you.
- Set your earnest money expectation in the counter. Money at risk is the clearest measure of commitment there is.
- Do not read too much into showing feedback. People are polite at showings. Behavior after the showing is the data.
- Keep the house available. Restricting showings to narrow windows filters out serious buyers as effectively as unserious ones.
The bigger point is that prepared homes attract prepared buyers. When a home in The Heights, Cabot, or Bryant is prepared well, priced right, and promoted aggressively, the tire kickers thin out on their own, because it is obvious the seller is serious. Seriousness is contagious in both directions.
If you are getting showings without offers and you want a straight read on why, let's talk. We will look at your feedback, your photos, your price, and the competition, and tell you what we see even when it is not what you hoped to hear.
Results That Move You.