Q: What are the different things you should think about when you write an offer on a property?
There are a number of important factors and decisions to be made, and it’s really about the combination of all the elements that makes the offer what it is. Yes, offer price is of course important, but here are the other important decisions you’ll need to make when you write up an offer on a home for sale:
- home inspection contingency — will you make the sale contingent on a successful negotiation of the outcome of a home inspection report
- financing contingency — how sure are you that you will get the loan, or do you have sufficient cash, or did you not even come prepared with a pre-qualification statement from your lender?
- radon contingency – will you make your offer contingent on the results of a home radon test?
- timing — how quickly are you prepared to be sitting across the settlement table from the seller, and if you have the above contingencies, how quickly can you have them removed from the contract?
- are you willing and able to offer some sort of rent-back to the sellers if it turns out they need to stay in the house after settlement?
- do you have a house of your own to sell, and if so, will you make your offer to purchase the next home contingent on the sale of your current home?
- as a counterpoint to your offer on sales price, are you asking for any seller subsidies, that is, help with closing costs?
There are more possible contingencies that are sometimes used in an offer, and you can basically submit the offer with any addenda you like. If you want to buy the house, the point is to identify what is most important to you and try to get some “intelligence” about what matters most to the seller. The latter can be a tough thing, as sometimes sellers don’t even know what’s important to them until they review the offer.
A good agent will help you piece these elements and more into an offer that interests a seller. After that, it may become a matter of what the competition is offering and how your offer has been presented to the seller.
If you’ve at least given these items some thought before sitting down with your agent, it will help you immensely when you go to write up an offer.
