Carol Woods' Blog
An offer to purchase represents a key milestone in the homebuying journey. Ultimately, it helps to plan ahead to ensure you're ready to submit a homebuying proposal. Because if you know what it takes to put together a competitive offer to purchase a house, you can boost the likelihood that a home seller accepts your proposal.
Now, let's take a look at three tips to help you get ready to submit an offer to purchase.
1. Study the Housing Market
The housing market fluctuates frequently. As such, you may enter a real estate market that favors buyers but slowly shifts into sellers' favor, or vice-versa. But if you examine the real estate sector closely, you can differentiate a buyer's market from a seller's one and submit an offer to purchase that accounts for the current housing market's conditions.
If homes are selling quickly at or above their initial asking prices, you may be working in a seller's market. Comparatively, if houses linger on the real estate market for many weeks or months before they sell, you may be operating in a buyer's market. As you start to craft an offer to purchase a house, you should analyze the real estate market. By doing so, you can submit an offer to purchase that matches a seller's expectations.
2. Get Your Finances in Order
Entering the housing market with a budget in hand usually is beneficial. If you get pre-approved for a mortgage, you can narrow your house search and stick to a budget as you pursue your dream residence.
Banks and credit unions can teach you everything you need to know about fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgages. Perhaps best of all, lenders employ mortgage specialists who can respond to your mortgage concerns and questions. If you collaborate with a lender today, you can get the financing you need to buy a house. Also, you can conduct a search for homes that fall within your price range and reduce the risk of submitting an offer to purchase that surpasses your budget.
3. Avoid a "Lowball" Offer
Submitting a "lowball" offer to purchase a home may seem like a good idea at first. Yet submitting a homebuying proposal that falls short of a seller's expectations is unlikely to help you acquire your dream house.
In most instances, a seller will instantly reject a lowball offer to purchase. And if you receive an immediate "No" from a seller, you risk missing out on the opportunity to purchase your ideal residence.
Allocate time and resources to craft a competitive homebuying proposal – you'll be glad you did. Otherwise, you run the risk of putting together a lowball offer that will miss the mark with a seller and force you to look elsewhere to purchase a house.
Lastly, if you need extra assistance as you perform a house search, you may want to hire a real estate agent. By employing a real estate agent, you should have no trouble crafting a competitive offer to purchase any home, regardless of the housing market's conditions.
The home selling journey sometimes can be long and complicated. Lucky for you, we're here to address home selling challenges and ensure you can seamlessly list your house and maximize your home sale earnings.
Now, let's take a look at three tips to help you approach the home selling journey with confidence.
1. Learn About Your Home's Strengths and Weaknesses
Let's face it – even though you've allocated significant time and resources to upgrade your home over the years, your house is far from perfect. Fortunately, if you take an objective look at your residence, you can identify problem areas and address them before you list your house.
In many instances, it helps to conduct a house inspection prior to adding a home to the real estate market. This inspection enables a property expert to assess your residence and provide valuable feedback. Then, you can use a home inspection report to prioritize house improvements.
For home sellers, it is important to do everything possible to transform various home weaknesses into strengths. If you perform home repairs, you may be able to boost your house's value. Plus, completing home repairs may help you differentiate your residence from the competition and speed up the house selling journey.
2. Analyze the Real Estate Market
The real estate market moves quickly, and a buyer's market today could morph into a seller's market tomorrow, or vice-versa. If you learn about the real estate market, however, you may be able to identify opportunities to distinguish your residence from comparable houses in your city or town.
For example, if you find that houses are selling at or below their initial asking prices and take many weeks or months to sell, you may be operating in a buyer's market. To differentiate your house in a buyer's market, you may want to upgrade your residence's curb appeal. Also, it may be beneficial to set an aggressive initial home asking price that is sure to garner buyers' attention.
3. Work with a Real Estate Agent
When it comes to selling a residence, it helps to work with a housing market expert. If you hire a real estate agent, you can get the help you need to streamline the house selling journey.
A real estate agent is dedicated to helping you achieve the best-possible results. He or she first will learn about your home selling goals and craft a custom house selling strategy for you. Next, a real estate agent will promote your residence to the right groups of prospective buyers and set up home showings and open house events. And if you receive an offer to purchase your home, a real estate agent will provide a recommendation about whether to accept, reject or counter this proposal.
If you need assistance as you get ready to sell your home, you may want to contact a real estate agent. By working with a real estate agent, you can receive extensive support as you navigate the house selling journey.
If you add your house to the real estate market but fail to garner buyers' attention, now may be a good time to revamp your home pricing strategy. Otherwise, your home may remain on the housing market for many weeks or months before it finally sells.
Generally, there are several factors you need to consider to determine if you have priced your residence appropriately. These factors include:
1. The Current State of the Housing Market
The demand for houses in your city or town may have far-flung effects on your property selling experience. For example, if there is significant demand for houses in your area, the real estate sector favors sellers. Or, if there is minimal demand for homes in your city or town, the real estate market favors buyers. And if you do not price your house appropriately in a seller's or buyer's market, you may struggle to stir up interest in your home.
It often helps to price your house based on the current state of the real estate market. By doing so, you can establish an initial asking price for your home that falls in line with buyers' expectations.
To assess the current state of the housing market, evaluate the prices of recently sold residences in your city or town. You should find out how long these houses were available before they sold, too. Once you have this housing market data in hand, you can determine whether a seller's or buyer's market is in place and price your house accordingly.
2. Your Home's Age and Condition
The price you originally paid for your home is unlikely to match your house's current value. Fortunately, if you evaluate your residence's age and condition, you may be better equipped than ever before to set a competitive initial asking price for your home.
Sometimes, it helps to conduct a home appraisal before you list a residence. An appraisal enables you to receive a property valuation that accounts for your house's age and condition, along with various real estate market factors. Then, you can use this valuation to determine the optimal initial asking price for your house.
3. Your Home Selling Timeline
If you are in a hurry to sell your home, you should establish an initial asking price that will grab buyers' attention. On the other hand, if you can afford to be patient during the home selling journey, you should not settle for a subpar offer to purchase your house.
When it comes to establishing a home selling timeline and determining how to price your residence, hiring a real estate agent may be beneficial. A real estate agent understands what it takes to sell a home, regardless of the current housing market's conditions. As such, he or she will work with you to ensure you can price your home competitively.
For those who want to streamline the home selling journey, it typically helps to start with a competitive initial asking price for your house. If you consider the aforementioned factors, you can boost the likelihood of pricing your home appropriately from day one of the house selling journey.
Sometimes, being in the hunt for a home feels like being in a race you can’t win. You should craft an offer that they cant refuse in order to get ahead on the house hunt. The real estate market can be hot or cold. No matter what the market is like, having a solid offer can be very beneficial to you as a buyer. Here’s some tips for you to get the offer you make accepted:
Get Preapproved
When you get preapproved, you’re showing the seller that you’re a serious buyer. Being preapproved gives you a shorter closing time and helps you to clear any financing hurdles before you get to them.
Avoid Lowball Offers
Make sure that you check out the prices of other homes in the neighborhood. Your real estate agent can help you to do this research. Often, you’ll need to offer the asking price or above if it’s a seller’s market. If all the research leads you to offer somewhere in the neighborhood of the asking price for a home, you’ll want to abide with that.
Too Many Contingencies Turn A Seller Off
The financing contingency is the agreement that is put forth to help a buyer get out of the deal if financing falls through. You’ll need to be sure that you actually have the cash on hand to help you if the appraisal falls short, however. While this isn’t recommended, it can give you a leg up in the buying process if you know what you’re doing.
Another thing that you might consider is waiving the inspection. This does however, remove the ability to be sure that a home is in livable condition. This is another way to give yourself an advantage in the home search process, but it’s not recommended. A better way to keep the inspection and streamline the process is to shorten the inspection time by having the inspector ready to go immediately.
Add A Clause To Increase Your Amount
You are able to add an escalation clause into a deal. This will automatically increase your deal by a predetermined amount if the seller gets more than one offer on the home. There’s a cap on these deals, so it doesn’t work like an auction. It’s a good option and it causes sellers to have to disclose the competing offers. Typically, this wouldn’t be the case. The only way you’d be out of the deal is if other offers exceed your cap.
Be Smart With Negotiations
You can offer to pay closing costs and home warranties instead of the seller having to pay them. Costs associated with the closing can be extensive, so offering to pay these fees can be very appealing to the seller.
Get Personal
It’s difficult for sellers to part with the home that they love. If you get a bit personal and write a letter or send a video message to the sellers, you may often appeal to them on another level. In the letter, you may want to address how well the sellers have taken care of the home and express your desire to continue your life in the home in the same fashion. Many times, this is really a great way to connect with your seller and give you a better chance of getting your offer accepted.
The number one factor that affects the length of time a house remains on the market is curb appeal. That's the consensus of real estate professionals across the country, and was documented in a recent study by a well-known real estate website.
So if it's such a high priority, then why do a lot of homeowners skimp on that aspect of preparing their home for a fast sale? Sometimes it's a lack of awareness; other times it may be a lack of money. In extreme cases, it can be quite pricey to transform a home from "shabby" to "exquisite!" That's an unusual scenario, though, and in most cases the cost of enhancing your home's curb appeal should be both affordable and cost effective.
Where to Begin
The ideal visual (and visceral) effect you want to achieve can be summed up in ten words: fresh, well cared for, aesthetically pleasing, manicured, meticulous, updated, and clean. Perhaps a more concise way to describe the image you want to project to potential buyers is "pride of ownership." Once you're conveying that impression, people are going to make positive assumptions about the value and condition of your home. While it's not necessary that the front of your property and home look perfect in every imaginable way, it is important to pay attention to small details and overall impressions.
Some homeowners will see this goal as an overwhelming challenge, but it doesn't have to be. The first hurdle is to take care of the basics, such as making sure your lawn always looks freshly mowed and that there's no signs of peeling or faded paint on your home and garage. Pulling weeds, placing a few colorful hanging flower baskets in strategic locations, and trimming overgrown bushes and trees are also effective ways to make your property look more desirable.
An advantage of working with a seasoned real estate agent is that they can quickly size up the outside appearance of your home, and make cost-effective suggestions of ways to improve curb appeal and increase the attractiveness of your property. When it comes to selling your house in the shortest period of time, first impressions are vitally important.
One helpful tactic for getting your house noticed by house hunters and real estate agents is to take a walk (or drive) in your neighborhood to see how your curb appeal stacks up to other homes for sale in the area. Ideally, you want your home to look at least as good, if not better, than other nearby properties. Since potential buyers may be focusing their search on specific neighborhoods, such as yours, you'll be giving yourself more of an "inside track" in the real estate market by making sure your home compares favorably to others in the immediate area -- both inside and out.