In today’s highly competitive sellers’ real estate market you will need any edge you can get to compete and make your offer stand out from the rest in order to win the property. Some of the following 7 ways are definitely risky moves so you will need to decide how much you really want the house and what you feel comfortable with and willing to give up. Let’s get into it.
1- Have your Realtor have a heart to heart conversation with the listing agent
Real Estate is and always will be, at least for the foreseeable future, a people business. Ask the hard questions like, why are the sellers selling? Who are they? What has been the feedback from other showings? What are the sellers looking for in an offer? How many showings are scheduled? Are there any other offers? If so how many? There’s two goals here, one is to get as much upfront information as possible and two is to build good rapport and to understand each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well.
2- Offer above list price
How much more will depend on how familiar you are with the local market and what it can bear and or appraise. Ask your Realtor if she’s aware of or if she’s had any appraisal issues in the local market recently. Today you can make a quick Comparable Market Analysis (CMA) on the spot. Of course taking into consideration the property’s physical condition, its location and future potential.
3- Have some serious skin in the game
In the past 20 years of my real estate career I have yet to lose an Earnest Money deposit. The more the better because it shows how serious you are and that you aren’t playing any games. Remember that the Earnest Money is credited to you at closing towards your down payment and or financing closing costs. If the purchase agreement is contingent on inspection and financing you will get your money back should any of the two falls through.
4- Inspection or no inspection?
We call this option “going nuclear” because writing an offer without an inspection is one of the riskiest move you can make when buying a property specially for first time homebuyers. We here at TWINCITIES.REALESTATE never recommend not doing an inspection but if the buyers are experienced enough and know what to look for on a property this option can pay dividends and will definitely make your offer stand out from the crowd. Use this option at your own risk!
5- Type of financing
All financing aren’t created equal and as in poker hands, there’s a pecking order and they are as follow: Cash is king, 10%-20% down Conventional, 3%-10% down Conventional, 3.5% down FHA and 0% down or 100% financing.
6- Don’t ask for closing costs or any sellers’ concessions
Make the sellers life as easy as humanly possible and a real pleasure to deal with you by making your offer as clean and as smooth as you can.
7- Pay the property taxes yourself
This option is one that is overlooked all of the time but one which involves from a few hundred to a couple of thousands of dollars and that is to pay all of the current year’s property taxes yourself at closing. In turn this will make the sellers’ bottom line blacker giving you a huge advantage.
Finally, I can’t stress enough the importance to be working with an experienced, reliable and transparent professional whom you deeply trust. Putting the deal together is an art form in it in itself! In this business details matter.
Now go get your search on.
Jerry Arguello
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