Quick Tips for Making your Best Offer

1. Know Your Budget

Before you even start your home search, work with a mortgage broker to get preapproved for a loan. The approval process helps you understand what you can reasonably afford to pay and helps you set a budget. The process can be rigorous, so being preapproved by a lender makes your offer appear more serious than those offers from other buyers. Put a pause on your home search until you know exactly what you are comfortable offering.

2. Be Prepared to Move Fast.

Once you submit an offer on a house, the seller’s Realtor is going to let you know very quickly (within a day or two) whether your offer is accepted or whether they intend to counteroffer. When you make an offer, you need to be prepared to sign on the dotted line. If you wait too long to close the deal, someone else could swoop in and beat your offer. Don’t delay, be prepared to buy.

3. Work with a Realtor®.

Realtors® are your local real estate market experts who are skilled in finding homes within your parameters and guiding a sale to close. They know what a realistic offer looks like and what it must include. Don’t go it alone – always work with a Realtor to make your best offer when buying a home.

4. Craft a Strong, Fair Offer.

In a sellers’ market, buyers have no choice but to make strong offers in order to stand out from other buyers. You may need to offer more than the list price, but you don’t want to overpay! Consider removing contingencies or softening terms. Take your Realtors® advice on this – they know what they’re talking about and they want you to get the fairest deal possible!

5. Balance the Seller’s Needs with Your Own.

Your Best Offer doesn’t just get you any house. It gets you the home of your dreams, which means you can’t lean too heavily in the Seller’s favor out of a desire to own any house on the block. Be honest with yourself about home features that you really need and what you can actually afford to pay. Don’t get caught trying to outbid another buyer on a house you aren’t fully committed to owning. You’ll likely own this home for a long time – balance your needs with the seller’s expectations to close the best deal possible.

Final Thoughts

A Realtor® is your best advocate when you’re in the market for a new home. They’re experts at searching the Multiple Listing Service for available, desirable listings, at explaining the pros and cons of a given property, and at crafting winning offers to present to their selling counterparts. Trust your Realtor® to guide you through the home buying process – it’s much easier than going it alone! Visit www.onekeymls.com/Directory to find the Realtor® to help you find your perfect place.

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