How To Make a Winning Offer on a House
Now that you’re financially secure and have found your dream home, you’re probably ready to take the next step towards purchasing a house. However, if you found your home in a seller’s market, there’s still one thing standing in the way: other buyers. Luckily, we’ve found various strategies that you can use in a bidding war that will help ensure you land your dream home.
Getting Pre-Approved
Your journey towards home buying doesn’t start with calling a real estate agent — it starts with getting a mortgage pre-approval from a lender. This is because pre-approval helps with two crucial steps:
Confirms your price range so you’ll know which homes you can afford
Shows home sellers that you’re serious about purchasing a home
Sellers will always prefer pre-approved buyers because this tells them that you’ll have the money when closing time comes.
No Conditions
A seller won’t want their home to sit on the market and they don’t want to relist their home because a condition resulted in the fallout of a sale. Submitting a firm offer with no specific conditions that must first be met before the finalization of a sale, translates into a stronger and more desirable offer. By having a pre-approved mortgage in place and your home inspection completed before offer date, you’re telling the seller that you’re able and willing to close the deal and your offer is a serious one.
Make a Competitive Offer
To know what a competitive offer would be, be sure to review recently sold properties with your agent to get an idea of what sellers consider is a fair price. This is because offering a lowball amount will usually backfire, and buying a house isn’t like buying at a flea market. Offering $550,000 for a house that’s worth $650,000 might come out as an insult and you probably won’t get calls after that.
Increase Deposit Money
A bigger deposit amount shows how serious you are with buying the property. Many sellers will feel more confident with buyers who put down at least a 5% deposit rather than those who put down a 1% deposit. In short, if a house costs $500,000, don’t offer a $5000 deposit — this will make a seller nervous since you can easily walk away without losing much.
Offer the Seller’s Preferred Closing Date
Sellers prefer to close in as little as 30 days or more than 90 days and everything in between. If they have specified a particular closing date, try to accommodate them. This can give you the edge over other competitors. Furthermore, some sellers find it more important to close on their preferred date rather than get more money from a deal.