Making The Right Offer

Should you make a full-price offer, one equal to the home’s listing price? Or should you offer $10,000 less? That depends largely on the real estate market of the neighborhood you are in and the season of the year. (Yes, the real estate market is seasonal.)

How do you make an offer?

Once you find a home that fits your needs, you’ll work with me to make an offer on that property.

Say the sellers are listing the home for $550,000. You might make a full-price offer for that amount. Or you might try to negotiate a lower sale price, perhaps offering $530,000. Your real estate agent will submit your offer to the agent representing the sellers.

The sellers can then accept the offer, reject it or come back with a counteroffer. That third option is a common one. Say you offer $530,000. The sellers might counter, asking for a final sale price of $540,000. In either case,  if your offer is so low to begin with the seller might feel insulted and then might end negotiations, thinking that you and they will never reach an agreement. Sellers do not have to accept an offer under list price and most sellers are especially reluctant to do so when inventory levels are low in their metro area.

You then have the option to accept the counteroffer, reject it outright or make another offer. In this case, you might offer $535,000.

These negotiations continue until either you and the sellers agree on an offer or one side cuts off the negotiations and walks away from the deal.

What should you offer?

How much should you offer on a home for sale? There is no one answer to that question. It’s important, though, to understand the demand for homes in your market and how long homes have been on the market in that area. Generally. if homes have been on the market less than a month sellers are less willing to negotiate.

If homes are selling quickly and often fetching full-price offers, you might offer the sellers their full asking price or more. This is especially important if homes often attract more than one bidder. If you make an offer $20,000 under the sellers’ asking price and another bidder makes a full-price offer, you might lose your chance to buy the home.

But if home sales have slowed down in an area, you might have more room to negotiate on the sale price. Maybe the sellers have had their property on the market for several months without receiving offers. They might be more willing to accept an offer under their listing price.

Other factors

Price isn’t the only factor when making an offer. You can also negotiate the date on which the sellers will move out or offer a post occupancy agreement if the seller's need more time to find a home. You might ask, too, for the sellers to leave certain items behind when they move. Maybe there’s a swing set in the backyard that you know your children will love. You can ask in your offer that the sellers leave that set behind.

The key is to make a fair offer. Your goal is to not overpay for a home. But you don’t want to insult the sellers, either, by making an offer that is too low.

I will help you understand the best way to handle the offer in order to make a fair offer along different steps of the transactions and even BEFORE you setup showings.  I will also reach out to the sellers agent to help you decide if their is any contingencies or factors important to the seller that will help you before even submitting an offer. This knowledge can help you make an offer that increases your odds of landing your dream home!

Modified by: Theresa Tscheschke Gunal ; Used courtesy of Carol Kerner-Odgis, Home Actions, LLC