How do you calculate your offer?
A serious buyer of income property values it on the numbers — net operating income and a market cap rate — not a guess from street view. Expect them to ask for your trailing twelve months of income and expenses (T12) and a current rent roll before giving a firm price, and expect them to show you the math. A buyer who names a firm price without seeing financials is either lowballing or planning to renegotiate later.
Can you show proof of funds?
Ask for a recent bank or fund statement, or a lender letter. This is standard commercial practice, and no legitimate buyer is offended by the request. If the deal depends on financing, ask who the lender is and how far along the relationship is.
What is your real closing timeline — and what could slow it down?
Direct purchases usually close faster than listed sales because there is no marketing period. But an honest buyer will also tell you what can stretch the date: title issues, tenant estoppels, survey questions, or lender timelines. A buyer who promises a date with no caveats is telling you what you want to hear.
What happens to my tenants?
For an occupied building the right answer is simple: leases transfer with the property, tenants stay, and rent keeps flowing. If a buyer's plan requires the building empty, that changes your risk profile — get the plan, and who bears that risk, in writing.
Is your offer assignable — and will you be the one closing?
Some contracts let a buyer assign the purchase to a partner or affiliated entity. Assignment is not automatically bad — partnerships and holding entities are normal in commercial real estate — but you are entitled to know who will be on the closing documents, and a meaningful deposit is what keeps everyone serious either way.
What fees or commissions do I pay?
In a true direct sale you pay no listing commission. Ask specifically who pays title, transfer taxes, and closing costs, and get your net-to-you number in writing before you sign. Our net proceeds calculator shows how the pieces fit together.
What due diligence do you need, and how long will it take?
Expect a document request — T12, rent roll, leases, and notes on recent capital work. A defined due-diligence period with a defined end date beats an open-ended one. Vague, extendable diligence is where slow deals go to die.
What happens if you miss the closing date?
The answer you want: the deposit goes hard or is released to you, or an extension is agreed in writing with consideration attached. Vague answers to this question are the biggest red flag on the entire list — it is the moment you find out whether the buyer has real skin in the game.