Making an Offer

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Making a great offer is essential to buying the home you love.  Our experienced team will help you fully understand the process of making an offer. Here is everything you need to know to make the best offer!

1) Pre-Approval Letter: A pre-approval is a preliminary evaluation of a potential borrower by a lender to determine a borrower's estimated interest rate and a maximum principal amount. It is very beneficial for buyers to have a pre-approval letter before submitting an offer. 

2) Decide How Much To Offer?: Our team has successfully found a home that meets your criteria and you are ready to make an offer. There are important details to keep in mind when deciding on an offer price. 

     - Research the home and its history. 

     - Understand the current market and comparable recent home sales in the area. 

     - Have a clear understanding of your budget. 

3) Decide on Earnest Money: An earnest money deposit is an upfront cash deposit that you will forfeit to the seller in the event you walk away from the deal for something outside of your contingencies. The earnest money deposit is held in a non-interest bearing account This money will be given back to you at the time of closing usually in the form of a buyer's credit. Earnest money can help strengthen your offer, showing the sellers that you are serious about buying their home. 

4) Contingencies to Consider:

     -Home inspection: You’ll want to get a home inspection performed on the property before closing. This contingency allows you to renegotiate or back out of the deal entirely if it reveals serious issues. 

     Appraisal: This contingency allows you to renegotiate or exit the transaction if the home’s appraised value is less than what you’ve offered. 

     Financing: This contingency lets you back out if your mortgage loan falls through.  

     Home sale: This one is for buyers who are also selling their current property. This contingency will inform the sellers that you agree to buy their home, but not until your existing home sells. 

     Title: Under this contingency, you can leave the deal if there are issues with the property’s title. 

5) Drafting up your initial offer: Now it’s time to start drafting up your offer. Our team will discuss with you the "terms" of the offer. We highly encourage you as the home buyer to look it over and sign it the contract before we send it to the listing agent. Your offer should include:  

     - Purchase price

     - The address of the property

     - The full legal names of anyone who will be on the title

     - What type of financing and down payment

     - Earnest money deposit 

     - Included appliances along with any other non-fixed items that convey with the sale.

     - Any contingencies you’d like to include 

     - Any concessions you may be considering or the sellers are offering 

     - Title Insurance (many times required by the lender)

     - Tax Proration 

     - What date you would like to close on the home 

     - Your preferred move-in dates for the home 

     - Choose a Title company to handle the closing

     - Give the seller an Expiration time to respond by. 

6) Send your offer over to the sellers for review: At this time your agent will make sure all signatures and initials are received. Your offer will then be sent over to the sellers for review. 

The seller can either accept it, reject it, or make a counteroffer. If the seller accepts your offer, then congratulations! If the seller rejects your offer, it’s time to start looking for another property. Use this experience to help guide your next offer.

In the event the seller gives you a counter-offer 

You can accept the offer as-is, decline the counter offer or even make your own counter-offer. Keep in mind that if a home has multiple offers, you may not get the opportunity to receive a counter offer.   

Remember that more than the price is up for negotiations. 

     - You can remove contingencies

     - Change your closing date 

     - In some cases offer a lease-back to the seller

These negotiations are where our team's experienced agents will shine.

7) Finalize and sign: Once you come to terms with the seller it's time to finalize the contract. Signatures from both parties will be required. Once the offer is finalized, your agent will send the contract to your mortgage lender to continue the mortgage process where your pre-approval left off. Your lender will order the appraisal, and you can set up your home inspection.