Making an Offer

Hopefully, after all your looking and researching, you will find a place that you love.  It speaks to you, and offers all sorts of possibilities for your future retirement life.  It's exciting, and scary both at once.

Well, the advice I have for you now is to try and approach the offer process without that emotion.  It's difficult, but if you truly want to get the best deal, be prepared to walk away.  Of course, that's sometimes easier said than done.  And truthfully, as my husband John likes to say, what makes a good deal is when both parties walk away happy.  But in the past, we have applied this to a couple of real estate transactions, and we were successful, even though our realtor suggested we raise our offer amount!

I asked John to give us some advice, here's what he had to say -

"As we're all aware, there's been no better time in recent history to be a buyer in the real estate market.  When you're ready to make an offer, look at both the listing price and how many days it's been on the market.  These days, it's not unheard of to offer 20 to 25% less than the asking price.  Yes, some realtors might consider that insulting, but by law, they have to bring that offer to the seller.  Also, if you have your funding all set already, and you  can close quickly, then you may be in a much better situation to get the property at a better price."

This low offer tactic actually worked in our favor twice in our purchasing history.  The first time our realtor was horrified!  She tried to talk us out of it, and said the seller wouldn't deal with us anymore.  But for some reason we weren't that concerned, and knew if we didn't get that property we would find another.  We told her to present the offer and we'll just see what the sellers come back with.  Well, to all of our astonishment, they accepted it right off the bat!

We also did it with the property we bought now, our beautiful retirement property.  The sellers bought the house to flip, but didn't winterize it, and it was totally damaged.  Which was fine with us, since we just wanted property.  This time, we offered about 30% less because it had been on the market awhile, and  the house was uninhabitable.  We went back and forth quite a bit with the sellers, but the sellers wanted to close within three weeks, and since we had our funds available, we came to an excellent agreement, we got it for close to 25% less than they were asking.  Were we shocked?  Yes.  Were we prepared to walk away?  Again, yes.  But we have been happy and thankful every time we see the place!

John now continues, "Include that your offer to buy is subject to a clean title, and inspection (if it's a house) or a survey if it is property.  You may have to give your realtor a good faith down payment at this point, and sign papers proving it's a legitimate offer.  Also, if you don't know a lawyer in the area, ask your realtor for a few names.

These principles are just guidelines because every situation is different.  Some people, especially early in the listing, do not want to budge from their listing price.  And sometimes, your emotional attachment to a place is so strong, that you don't want to lose it!  In that case, don't worry that you didn't get the absolute lowest price you could have gotten.  If you're happy, and the seller is happy, it was a good deal!"