How to get your offer accepted when competing with other buyers for the same home? Our market still has this happening so how do you give yourself the best chance for success?
There is certainly a strategy involved. It is important to discuss with me what you should do given the current situation. I will provide you with a list of things that can be done.
This is only a few ideas…just to get you thinking about the possibilities.
1. You can offer higher earnest money. Let’s say the seller of your dream
home wants $5,000 for earnest money. By providing $7,500 you are communicating that you really want the home. Earnest money is almost always refundable and not likely to be at risk, so this is one way to look serious with very little risk. I can give you details regarding when you run
the risk of losing your earnest money.
2. You can consider waving the inspection or only doing the inspection to gather information and not provide the seller with a list of items to fix. Risk to you is small. You should still make sure that you have the right to cancel the contract if you find something unacceptable.
3. You can offer to pay the contract price no matter what the appraisal comes in at. Or if you are concerned that you may have offered too high you can say that you are willing to pay a certain amount over appraisal. For example you offer $420,000 on a home listed at $400,000. You have written in the contract that you will pay $1,000 over what ever the appraisal is up to a max of $420,000.
Additionally Consider
4. You can offer to give the seller possession after closing for 24 hours or longer. If you were to offer this it would be important to know more about the seller. Is the seller waiting for a house to be built. In that situation you could agree to rent the home back to them for a maximum length of time. Additionally. details of this can be worked out in the contract and with a post occupancy agreement. This can certainly set you apart from other buyers.
5. You can agree to pay many of the fees that are a part of a real estate transaction that are often payed for by the seller. For example, you could pay for the title work and/or the owner’s extended coverage. You could pay for the cost of closing the transaction. If there is a HOA you could pay for both the status letter fee and the transfer fee. Before you agree to do this, please make sure that you have a good idea of what this might cost. It may not have enough of an impact that it is worth doing.
An offer is a package. It is important that I communicate with the other agent to learn as much as I can about the seller and their situation so that we can craft an offer that has the best chance of getting accepted. Contact us for more assistance in how to get your offer accepted.