Submitting a offer on a piece of property

The fun begins. This part of the process can lead to a major loss of sleep and untold, unrepeatable comments about sellers and the real estate industry in general. The good news is there’s a standard procedure to follow, so at least you know you’re following the right course. The goal here is to get an accepted contract on terms that meet your financial conditions and most of your other hopes. The format to follow is.

1. After you have found the property you want to buy, speed is of the essence in your decision making.

After taking your time looking at houses you need to get this done quickly so that no-one else beats you to the property. When I first heard this as a young agent I thought it was just a pushy sales technique. After enough of my clients lost homes that they wanted because they wanted more time to think, get more details, procrastinate and were just nervous I changed my mind. You would not believe the amount of properties that clients of mine lost that had been on the market for months. Bought out from underneath us by someone who had happened to look at it just prior to my clients. I don’t really understand it but it happens all the time and let me tell you this: There are few feelings worse than finding out the property you want has just been sold while you were putzing around. If this happens to you, take a break for a week or two from looking at properties because at this point nothing is going to match up to the one you can’t have.

2. Don’t worry about making a mistake when making your offer. There is plenty of time to get out of the contract during the 1st two weeks. If you want to have your parents look at it, and then have your agent put in a clause that the offer is subject to your parents viewing the property. If that sounds immature to you don’t worry about it, it done all the time and if it makes you feel more comfortable that’s all that matters. Your goal is to find out if the seller will consider your offer based on the terms you need.
3. If you have never bought a home before use an agent to help you put the offer together not a lawyer. You’re spending a ton of money. The seller knows more about real estate than you do (or they should since they have bought at least one more home than you have); A lawyer is qualified to look at or put together a contract but most of them do not practice real estate regularly so they do not know the standard practices of the industry. A real estate agent with experience can save you thousands of dollars and tons of headaches.
4. Use the standard real estate contract that has been approved by the local board of realtors or the local bar association or the state real estate commission. It’s easy to tell if you’re using one of these because it will say so on the top of the contract. These approved contracts are for the protection of both the buyer and the seller. Contracts that you can buy in an office supply store are usually very vague and don’t have very many protections built into them for the buyers protection.

5. Sit down with your agent and let them start to take control. This is what you hired them for and they should fill out the contract for you, explaining what it all means when they are finished.

Remember they are a buyer’s agent and are solely working for your best interests… if you are not working under a buyers agency agreement keep your cards very close to your vest!

6. Details to go over with your agent:
7. The sold index of what properties in the area have sold for.
8. Financial terms that you need in the contract to make it work for you.
9. Closing dates
10. Inspection clauses
11. How long you’re going to give the seller to respond to your offer. (It should not be more than 24 hours unless special circumstance dictates it.) If a lot of people have looked at it real recently, shorten the response time to hours.
12. Submit the offer, take a deep breathe and try to relax.

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