Page 22 - How To Buy A Home with Cat Stevens RVG

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Making An Offer

First of all, remember this: after the offer is negotated Ask me to include those in the offer and see if the
and accepted, buyers might sometimes wonder if seller accepts it. Items and appliances not attached
they could have gotten a price lower, and the seller to the wall or cabinets are negotiable. Those that are
will always wonder if they could have received more permanently attached are part of the property.
money for the house. That’s just human nature, and
all you can really do is look at the facts on the table Making an offer can be one of the most confusing
and make the best decision possible with the infor- times in the home buying process. One individual
mation at hand. may feel this is her dream house and she offers the
listed price and the seller accepts the offer immedi-
When an offer is accepted, it becomes the Sales ately. Another may think the listed price is inflated
Contract, a legally binding contract to purchase a based on the homes that sold in the area and will
home. There is no “think about it and cancel later” offer less than the listing price.
period, so you should ask your attorney, accountant,
and lender all questions before making the offer. Part of a Realtor’s® job is to help you make a fair
At the time you make an offer you will also make a offer. I know how to write a good offer, will know
Good Faith deposit. The check is deposited immedi- when an offer is too low, and will know when a
ately after the offer is accepted. If you cancel the contract won’t work. However, I cannot make you
contract because of inspection results, or if you offer anything you don’t want to, and the choice of
can’t sell your other house, you will usually get your what to offer is your decision.
money back. Otherwise, it is held until closing and
applied to your down payment or closing costs, To help you decide what to offer, I will create a
and your lender will let you know if you get it back comparative market analysis (CMA) for any home
directly or if it goes to your down payment. you would like to buy. A CMA compares the house
that is for sale with others in the same area of similar
The price that a house is on the market for is called characteristics that have sold in the last six months
the listing price. It means that this is the price the to a year. For example, if the 3-bed ,2-bath house you
seller is asking the buyer to pay for the house, and love is listed at $200,000 and a 3-bed, 2-bath house
sometimes this is non-negotiable. Sometimes the down the street in the same condition with similar
seller may be motivated to move by their personal square footage sold for $170,000 last month, we
situation and be willing to sell the house to you for know that the seller is asking too much, and you can
less than the listing price. Examples of these situa- make your offer accordingly.
tions will be explained on the following pages of this
buyer guide.

When you make your offer, you can make many stip-
ulations. For example, if you want the seller to leave
the microwave and curtains, no problem!

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