Making an Offer on a House

Listen You found a great house in a great location at a price you can afford. You need to make an offer now. Usually, it is safe to offer the price the seller is selling it for. But if the market is hot and many other people are buying, you might have to make an offer that is higher than the listed price. Likewise, if the market is slow, then it will be wise to make an offer that is less than the market price. For example, if you are wanting to make an offer on a $300,000 house, an offer of $290,000 is realistic if the market is slow. This will save you $10,000. But this could back fire if they receive multiple offers and your bid is lower than another potential buyer. A good agent will know what to do so I’m reminding you again to pick an experienced agent.

Listen Another trick to save some money is to ask for assistance for closing cost. You can make an offer of the full list price and request $5,000 assistance in closing cost. That means the seller will agree to contribute $5,000 towards closing cost. Just so you know, for a house that is $300,000, the closing cost will generally be about $6,000.

Listen Another thing to remember when making an offer is to make sure the offer is contingent on an inspection. This means that you will need to find a house inspector. There are many and your agent can help you find one. They will come and examine the house. If there are no major problems, then you can go ahead with the purchase. But if they find any major flaw, you can request that the seller fix the problem or reduce the cost of the house to compensate for the damages. It is very important to get an inspector because damages you cannot see can be very expensive. For example, if the plumbing is bad, or the roof is damaged, the cost to fix it will be very high. But if you have an inspector, they will find the problem before you buy the property.

Listen After both you and the seller comes to mutual agreement, then it is time to borrow money from the bank. This is called a home mortgage. You are going to borrow money from the bank to buy a house. Technically, you do not own the house, but there is a guarantee that when you pay the loan, you will be the owner. As long as you pay, the bank cannot take the house away from you. If you fail to make your house payment, the bank has the right to take away your house. This is called foreclosure, but we will not cover this here because I think you are smart enough to plan properly. Let’s learn about mortgages now.