Buying a dream home is one of the crucial events which might happen to your life. The purchase offer for a house is more like a marriage proposal. The answer might be no, or yes. In both cases you need to be focus on how you can move forward with a positive approach to the seller. You must give your full effort to convince the seller in order to get your job done. Here goes some rules which might be helpful for you to get a clean-chit from the seller.
Try to be likable – Communicate with your seller in a friendly manner. Do not say or commit such things which can irritate the seller. Do not forget that the seller may have some emotional bonding with the house & if you want a successful deal, you must not express your future plans regarding the house. You might want to renovate or modify a certain part of the house, but let it be hidden to the seller. Do not criticize the house in front of the seller, it may got worse & spoil the rapport between both of you. Many other new homebuyers might also haunt for that home, so, you need to be very cautious while dealing with the seller.
Do not visit the house too much before completing the deal. Try to know important details about the home from your realtor & seller before making the offer. Any unfair demands, like shortening the time of closing date or visiting the house more frequently would trigger an alarm to the seller's mind & might end up with a unsuccessful agreement.
Make a appropriate offer – You will easily get the seller's attention by making an offer which is more or less similar with the seller's expectations. We have seen in most of the approved deals, the higher offer price is more preferable to the seller. It can best to make an offer that is little more than the listed price, it will help them to move forward than the other competitor buyers. But do not offer more than you can afford. If you offer a price beyond your limits & can't pay it, the seller will get a negative impression about you & he won't go for further negotiation.
On the other hand, if you quote a low price offer, the seller may feel a bit insulted which might create difficulties for your deal. So, consulting your real estate agent might be helpful in this situation. The realtor can help you choose an appropriate quote through a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of the home’s value as he can determine the true nature of the seller's expectation.
Prepare yourself for the approval – There is a chance that the seller might reject your offer. In that case the next step you may consider is to quote a higher price to the seller or search for a new home. But if you get lucky & the seller agrees to your offer, then you must collect required extensive documents as soon as possible. You'll need to get at least one or two week's time to attend the home inspection.
You might be asked to submit earnest money (sort of advance money or token for validating your purchase offer) by the seller. The amount may vary from 1% to 3% of the total value of home. That amount is refundable only if the seller backs off from selling the house. If you can not fulfill the clauses mentioned in the “purchase contract” or back off from purchasing the said house without any specific reason , your earnest money may get forfeited.
Carefully prepare your contract – Housing market is currently very “hot” in terms of availability of good homes. To shorten the time of getting the keys of the house, some aggressive homebuyers even skip the inspection part entirely. This is only a way to get quickly approved by the seller. But that's not wise, you may find many architectural problems in the house after buying it. If you have the inspection process done before buying, you might not have to carry out the pending repair & renovation work. After including those extra expenses, you might find that you have paid the selling price more than the appraised value of the house. So, you must not forget or skip the home inspection process & it should be added in the contract also.
Offering a price quote is one of the factors that ensures the interest of both seller & buyer. But get into an agreement without proper verification of the house is not a proper way of home buying. If you feel that completing the deal, “no matter what happens in the next”, is the most important to you rather than spending an extra time for proper inspection & paperwork, you might find yourself serving the consequences very badly.