Okay, so you know some of our tricks for making your offer to purchase more attractive to a seller, now we want to share with you some of the things we see that make your offer less appealing so that if you have them in your offer, you do so with your eyes wide open.
Welcome back to our “Home Buyer” blog (and video) series. If you have been following along, we love having you and hope you are enjoying them, for those of you who are joining us for the first time, we are thrilled you are here and hope that you will follow us.
Today’s topic is: Buying a Home: What makes your offer to purchase LESS appealing?
Hopefully you have already watched Lindsay’s video or read her blog on what makes your offer MORE appealing and are feeling comfortable with that. As you can well imagine, some of the points will make today will simply be the flip side of Lindsay’s but others are new:
- Offer Price – We all have different negotiating strategies and can defend why we use them, however, there is one that is sure to jeopardize the seller’s likelihood of accepting your offer. We call it: “If you do not offend the seller you have offered too much”. At best, this approach will save you some money, but it is just as likely to get your offer outright rejected with no attempt to negotiate.
- Earnest Money – As Lindsay explained this is the up-front cash portion of your purchase price which is due at the time that you make your offer. Although it is unlikely an offer will be rejected for proposing a low earnest money deposit, if the seller is considering other offers, is likely to be less appealing.
- Extras – Some closing costs such as the title company fee and transfer fees are customarily shared between the buyer and seller, some are customarily paid by the seller and others by the buyer. You can make your offer unappealing by requesting that the seller pay all or some of the costs that are customarily the responsibility of the buyer.
- Contingencies – For every contingency you add to your offer, the less appealing it becomes. In Arizona, buyers are well protected because the standard offer to purchase agreement gives you an inspection period within which the buyer may cancel the contract. In addition to this mortgage financing also acts as an automatic contingency. These add layers of risk for the seller that the deal will not close, if you add any more contingencies it makes your offer that much more less appealing.
- Closing Date – Choosing an unusually long or an unusually short closing date may make your offer less appealing.
- Flexibility – Being inflexible through the offer/counter offer phase is a sure fire way to make your offer less appealing.
That’s it for today’s post, so, if you want to stay up to date on all things Anthem, make sure you like our Facebook Page at ‘Wise Move AZ’ or subscribe to our Wise Move AZ channel on YouTube.
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Remember, if you or anyone you know is looking to buy or sell their home, please give us a call! It’s always the right time to make a wise move with the Wise Move AZ Team.
