Buying a new home or an investment property is exciting. We’ve gone through a long process of search and home viewing. In research we’ve checked out many homes, their condition, neighborhoods and prices in various areas. Tramping through homes with our real estate agent even began to get old. We’re excited about submitting our initial purchase offer. As do many other buyers, we may even ask for guidance from our real estate agent about how much to offer versus the asking price.
We need to understand that even the most conscientious of real estate agents who know their market may give us advice that could cost us money. While the average first offer in the market may be 8% below asking price and most sales happen at a final price around 3% below asking, those are just averages. For every average number there are some under and some over.
We may also fear that we may make too low of an offer and the seller will tell us to take a hike and we’ll lose this home we’ve decided is the perfect home for us. Whatever we decide to make our initial offer price, it’s important to understand that we’re likely to see one or more counter offers from both sides before a final deal is reached. If we pay attention, sometimes we can make it more about other things than just price.
Let’s say that we offer $179,000 against a $199,900 asking price for a home. The seller may respond with a counter offer of $189,900. Perhaps in the listing we see that they have not included a nice storage building and a portable hot tub in the listing. They have excepted those items, intending to take them with them when they move out.
Now, we may be willing to pay something a bit less than the current counter offer or not. However, maybe we can raise what we’re willing to pay a little if we could keep that storage building. After all, it’s on a nice little foundation and probably would cost around $1,000 to replace it. Or maybe we negotiate on the hot tub, or even both items. Counter offers do not have to be all about price.Clark,D
Buying a new home or an investment property is exciting. We’ve gone through a long process of search and home viewing. In research we’ve checked out many homes, their condition, neighborhoods and prices in various areas. Tramping through homes with our real estate agent even began to get old. We’re excited about submitting our initial purchase offer. As do many other buyers, we may even ask for guidance from our real estate agent about how much to offer versus the asking price.
We need to understand that even the most conscientious of real estate agents who know their market may give us advice that could cost us money. While the average first offer in the market may be 8% below asking price and most sales happen at a final price around 3% below asking, those are just averages. For every average number there are some under and some over.
We may also fear that we may make too low of an offer and the seller will tell us to take a hike and we’ll lose this home we’ve decided is the perfect home for us. Whatever we decide to make our initial offer price, it’s important to understand that we’re likely to see one or more counter offers from both sides before a final deal is reached. If we pay attention, sometimes we can make it more about other things than just price.
Let’s say that we offer $179,000 against a $199,900 asking price for a home. The seller may respond with a counter offer of $189,900. Perhaps in the listing we see that they have not included a nice storage building and a portable hot tub in the listing. They have excepted those items, intending to take them with them when they move out.
Now, we may be willing to pay something a bit less than the current counter offer or not. However, maybe we can raise what we’re willing to pay a little if we could keep that storage building. After all, it’s on a nice little foundation and probably would cost around $1,000 to replace it. Or maybe we negotiate on the hot tub, or even both items. Counter offers do not have to be all about price.Clark,D