Offering a Real Estate Purchase Agreement on a home that you like that you are interested in buying is exciting. It is attached to a lot of emotion - yours and the sellers. It is also the time when you really need help from your real estate agent.
Your agent should be very familiar with how to write up your offer so that it leans in your favor. The listing agent is well trained to represent the seller of the home. You will not be able to speak or negotiate directly with the seller about the purchase agreement.
Use A Real Estate Agent To Make Your Purchase Offer
You will want to plead your case for why you want to buy the house and for what price and the seller is going to want to plead their case for why they want more money than you are willing to offer. Trust me; you do not want to get into an argument with the seller if you want the house. Let the real estate agents to do all of the negotiating.
Given that you have done all of your homework, you want to come up with a fair offer price to put on the real estate purchase agreement. Once you have done this, you will want to review all of the purchase agreement contract. Once both you and the seller sign this paperwork it is contractually binding. Make sure that you check every thing for errors. You do not want to have to battle over mistakes that could have been avoided. The dispute could end up costing you a lot of time, aggravation and even money.
Buyer's Market Affects Your Real Estate Purchase Agreement
Let us look at your offer. Lately, since sometime in 2006 most real estate markets in the U.S. have turned to it being a buyer’s market. What does this mean? There are several interpretations. For our purposes we’re going to say that a buyer’s market means that there is an abundance of homes on the market for sale, and there are not as many qualified borrowers shopping for homes.
Yes, a buyer’s market brings some advantages to a home buyer. With an abundance of homes on the market, sellers are looking to make concessions to sell their homes such as a willingness to negotiate a little on their asking price, assist with buyer closing costs, property upgrade allowances or updates.
A word of caution about your offer price however, home sellers have to still be able to pay off their mortgage in order to sell their home. They also have some emotional attachment to their home and with that comes an attachment to what the home is worth. “Low balling” a purchase offer too much can get your purchase offer quickly dismissed. Make sure you pay attention to your real estate agent’s recommendations about how low you can make your offer if you are serious about getting the house.
Buyers Market Means Less Competition For Buyers
Another great situation caused by a buyer’s market is that there is far less competition for homes than there is in a seller’s market. Also, homes are in pretty good shape as most sellers are looking to keep their places looking nice so that they appeal to home buyers. With these being the case, you can get some pretty good deals out there. In fact you probably do not have to worry about paying an inflated price (so you’ll probably really end up paying the real market price of the home) for the home. You should be able to find your dream home that is in not too bad of shape if you spend some time looking around.
Purchase Offers and Counteroffers - You Can Negotiate
Once you put in your offer, you’ll probably have to wait a little bit, perhaps 24 hours, until you find out anything. Three things can happen: they accept your offer as is, they accept your offer with a counter offer, or they decline your offer. Remember, this process might require some negotiation so you will want to get in your head a point to where you are willing to negotiate, but if the seller goes beyond that point, you will want to walk away. Let the seller think about it. Remember, they are dealing with their emotional and financial tie to the property. A counter offer is not binding so if they counter with something you do not like you can always decline their offer back to you. Or you can submit your own counter offer their counter. How bad do you want the home?
Next up is what do you do after the offer is complete? Stay tuned.
