Making an Offer on a House: What makes your Offer MORE Appealing?

You have come a long way in your search for your new home, you have found the ONE and you are ready to make an offer.  Well done and wahoo! It’s ‘GO’ time!

Welcome to the 7th blog (& video) in our Buyer Series! If you’re just tuning in now, you may want to go back and read (or watch the videos for) the other 6!  In this blog we are assuming that you’ve found the perfect house and you’re ready to write an offer! So exciting!

Now, you want to make sure your offer gets accepted right?  This is where your REALTOR® is going to shine.  They’ll be able to walk you through the offer process and help you to develop the best offer you can.

We want to help you ensure that your offer is MORE appealing to a seller.  Of course, every transaction is unique and requires special consideration, but this is a good starting point to get you thinking about what you can do to write an offer that stands out and makes you shine!

Obviously, every Seller wants to see a cash offer at or above their listing price!  But guess what, life’s not a fairy tale and we are not about to tell you a story! So, if you’re not a full price, cash buyer, let’s dive into 5 things you can do to make your offer more appealing:

1. Earnest Money:  You can show the Seller that you are genuinely interested and committed to making the deal work by increasing your Earnest Money deposit.  This is cash that you must have available within 24 hours of the fully executed contract (unless otherwise specified), and shows the seller that you are genuinely serious about buying their home.  In Anthem it is common to use a nominal amount of only $1,000 or $2,000 as an earnest money deposit. Can you afford to put up more? If you can bump it up to $5,000 you are likely to be perceived as much more committed to seeing the sale close than another buyer who offers a smaller earnest money deposit.  A side warning here: this is also the money you will forego to the seller if you decide not to close after the inspection period is over, so if you are not completely committed, and think you may want (or need) to back-out before closing, keep the earnest money deposit low.
2. Closing Date:  This can be a great negotiating point, but it requires communication between the Buyer’s and the Seller’s REALTORS®.  For example, if a seller has already purchased their new home, they may look more favorably on an offer that closes as quickly as possible!  In other cases, the Seller may favor a long closing timeline, for example, if they need more time than average to move or if their new place isn’t quite ready yet.  Either way, if you have flexibility on when you want to get into your new home, let your REALTOR® know.  We’ve been able to salvage a number of deals by renegotiating on the closing date!
3. Additional Closing Costs:  It is important to consider all the additional costs that are required to close a deal.  These costs can include Capital Improvement Fees, Home Warranties, Disclosure Fees, and more.  If you structure your offer in such a way that you, as the buyer, will pay a reasonable portion of these costs, this can show sincerity to the Seller and is often better received.
4. Acceptance Time:  When a REALTOR® presents an offer on behalf of the buyer, it includes an Acceptance Deadline.  There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to the acceptance deadline. Much like the Closing Date, what works best will vary for every transaction.  It is best for your REALTOR® to connect with the Seller’s REALTOR® to determine what is appropriate.  You want to give them enough time to review the offer and make an informed decision, but you also don’t want to give them so long that another, potentially more appealing, offer comes in.
5. Pre-Approval:  If you are getting a loan to purchase your new home, you should always have pre-approval from your lender and be ready to provide confirmation of that approval at the time your offer is being made.  Your REALTOR® and lender can help walk you through this process.  Your pre-approval proves to the Seller that you have done your due diligence and that the transaction is less likely to fall through based on financing down the road.

These are five basic things you can do to make your offer more appealing to a seller, all of which make it more likely to get you into the home of your dreams!  With our clients we consider these factors along with others, specific to each deal such as a “love letter“ to the seller (yup, true story, ask us about it) and, where appropriate an escalator clause (ask us about this too!), to craft the best possible offer. We have loads of tricks up our sleeves to help you get your offer accepted.

In our next blog, Carolynn will cover “things to avoid” when making your offer or things that make your offer less appealing to a seller!

Well our dear followers, 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.