Getting your home offer accepted
It seems that no matter what type of economy you’re in, there’s always stiff competition to get your offer accepted on that home you want. Prospective home buyers come in all shapes and sizes, and if the home is eye catching to you, it’s likely eye catching to tens or hundreds of other buyers.
So how do you make sure your offer stands out from the crowd and that your offer gets accepted?
In this post, I’ll go over three key criteria that will help your offer standout from the rest of the crowd so that you get the home you’ve always wanted.
In June 2016, I bought a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom for $216K. When the home was initially listed, I walked through the home with my realtor the same day that the home was listed on the market, I was eager to submit an offer before others did. By this time, I had already submitted 10 offers on other homes and had not been selected. I was not willing to let this home pass through my fingers, so I made sure I submitted the best offer package possible. My offer was eventually selected and I believe these were the reasons why:
Above listing offer: The listing price was $200K and I offered $216K. I came up with this number by both knowing what I was comfortable paying and checking the prices of recent sales in the neighborhoods over the past 3 months. More specifically, I reviewed price per square foot to make sure that I was within the average of what buyers were paying, so this gave me peace of mind that I was not overpaying.
Early offer: The home came to market on a Thursday afternoon and I submitted my offer on Friday morning, well before the open house scheduled on Saturday and Sunday, and without seeing the home myself. My hope was to indicate to the seller that I was serious about the home and truly wanted it. To ensure I was not rushing into the purchase without any protection, I added a contingency to a home inspection in my offer.
Personal letter: Given that the home was located directly across the street from a University, I knew that the home would get a lot of interest from parents of university students who had no plans of living in the home themselves. To set myself apart, I wrote a personal letter that highlighted I was born, raised, and civically engaged with the city and that I was looking for a safe community to relocate to.
To recap, to make sure your offer gets accepted:
Above listing offer. If the home looks to be in great shape and several other people are bidding on the home, you’ll need to come to the realization that you may need to submit an offer above listing price.
Early offer. Getting your offer submitted early shows that you’re serious. If your offer is submitted early enough, you may be able to convince the seller to no longer hold the open house. This will save the seller and seller’s agent some time, too!
Personal letter. If no one submits a Persona Letter, how do you expect the seller to choose an offer that isn’t the highest offer? Sellers are not purely looking for the top offer. If you have a seller who is emotionally attached to a home, they’ll sometimes pick the offer to whom it’ll help the most.
These three criteria can help your offer stand out from the crowd and improve your chances of getting the home you’ve always wanted. Overall, in a bidding war, you do have to bring an aggressive offer, but there are other variables outside of the dollar amount that can help prove your case.
