You have found a place that you love and are going to be writing an offer on a house – that’s really exciting! Now, how do you go about writing an offer that is a step above the rest? From my experiences, these next few steps have worked out the best.
This article may contain affiliate links. For full information, please see my disclaimer here.
Put at least 20% down.
If you are in a multiple offer situation, your financing is going to be the BIGGEST consideration for the sellers. The more money down, the better. Sellers feel like it’s a more serious offer when there is a decent down payment. Cash offer? That’s your best bet. I know not everyone can do that, however, it’s definitely tempting to sellers! Either way, make sure you have your pre-approval or your proof of funds ready when writing an offer on a house.
Offer a reasonable purchase price.
Making a reasonable offer can seem obvious, but there will still be people out there low balling all the sellers, hoping to get their dream house for pennies. Only problem is- usually it insults the sellers and is VERY hard to come back from. Talk with your agent about the comps that have sold in the last year in that area and go from there. What’s going on in your market right now? Is it a buyer’s market? How long has the house been on? Any recent price drops? They will help you to arrive at a number that is a reasonable starting point.
When putting an offer in, your agent should know if there are other offers on the house yet. If there are not, you can go in a little lower with room for negotiation. But, if there are – you should be going in with your best offer if you really want that house. That means asking price, or even over in some markets. I have sold houses for $15,000 over asking within the first few days on the market. So yes, it does happen! Multiple offers and above asking price offers are an every day occurrence in certain towns. Just keep in mind that it also needs to appraise at the purchase price…or you may have a problem.
No home sale contingencies.
If you are trying to buy a house that has a ton of interest or multiple offers, most of the time sellers will not take an offer with a home sale contingency. A home sale contingency is when you are offering to buy the house, but must first sell your own in order to pay for that house (or at least so you won’t have to carry 2 mortgages). This gives us a domino effect. If the deal falls through on selling your house, you will not be able to buy their house. Now, I have had this happen where the buyers for MY buyers house fell through a few weeks before closing. They weren’t able to close on their house, so they were not able to buy their new house. No one was happy.
I have also had it happen where we got accepted contingent on selling my client’s home first – and it worked out great! We were in a hot market, they had a great house, and we went UC on their house within 5 days. Need to sell in order to buy? Get you house market-ready fast with these 8 tips. Now although it can work out, many times sellers will just not want to deal with it if they have other offers – it’s a huge risk. It happens all the time with no problems, but when there are multiple offers, or very picky/nervous sellers, it’s just not the way to go. When writing an offer, if you can swing it, no home sale contingencies. The best offers are when the buyers have nothing to sell, and are ready to go.
Write a letter of intent.
This has helped me many times over the years to win multiple offer situations. When you write a letter of intent to the sellers, it gives them a sneak peak into the lives of who will be living in their precious home. Everyone has a connection to their home. Especially if it’s an estate – the kids want to know that their childhood home is going to someone that appreciates it. Many sellers will not knowingly sell to builders that they know are just going to flip the house or tear it down. They want someone who will take care of the home and love it as much as they did, so include a little something about yourself when writing an offer on a house.
I recently had a deal where the seller was a teacher, and we mentioned in the letter that the wife of the buying party is also a teacher. The seller loved that! Another time, my buyer wrote how she was in her 40’s and it’s been her life long dream to own a house. Now that she finally was able to, she wanted THIS house. The sellers were happy that someone who had worked so long and hard to own had chosen their house. So, in your letter, be genuine about who you are, what you love about the house, how you plan to use it, and what it would mean to you to have it as your own.
Quicker inspections and flexible closing date.
One other thing that you can do to sweeten the deal is to do your inspections quicker. Usually you have within 10 days to schedule your inspections after the conclusion of attorney review. Offer to do them in 5-7. The sooner you get them done, the sooner they will know if you are a serious buyer. If something scares you away, they can get their house back on the market or reach out to another prospective buyer quickly.
If you are able to offer a flexible closing date, that can be amazing. Speak with your mortgage adviser on how quickly you can get your mortgage commitment. If your finances are very straight forward, or you have been under contract on another house recently and have already been to underwriting or close to it, they have most of your information ready to go. On the other hand, if you are renting month to month, and are ok with waiting an extra month to close so that their kids can finish out the school year, that’s super helpful!
These are just a few things that you can add when writing an offer on a house to make it amazing! If you are super stoked about buying this house, you want to put your best foot forward and make sure you did everything in your power to get it. No regrets!