Five Ways To A Winning Offer

Five Ways to a Winning Offer

With the Spring market about to heat up, and prognosticators saying this year will be every bit as hot as 2015, it might be a good idea to pre-plan how to make your real estate offer stand out in the unfortunate case that you find yourself in a competition for the property of your dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-Approval. I’ve written about this before. It’s essential to include proof that you have been pre-approved for a mortgage and not just pre-qualified. Pre-qualified is far less guaranteed of a loan than pre-approved. This assumes, since most of us don’t have heaps of money lying around, that you need financing. If you can pay cash that would be your absolute best chance of securing the winning bid.

Good deposit. The deposit, sometimes known as ‘earnest money’ helps to show the sellers how serious you are. If you can pull together a decent deposit, it will make a favourable impression compared to those who offer to put down the minimum.

Flexible closing. If you are able to cater to the sellers’ wishes when it comes to closing date, offer to do so. Most sellers are unable to buy before they sell, so they face incredible pressure to find a suitable home in a short period of time. Extending closing to 90 or 120 days will alleviate a bit of the pressure for them to find a new home and get their belongings packed up and moved.

Clean offer. Omit as many conditions as possible.  The sellers will want to accept an offer with the greatest chances of a successful outcome. They don’t want to have to put the property back on the market. If you’re in a competition, the fewer conditions the better. My only caveat to this is that you should always include a home inspection. Make it quick though - no two-week long timeframe for the home inspection condition.

Make it personal. For some sellers, moving is an emotional experience and visualizing the ‘right’ people living in their house helps to ease the transition. What is the ‘right’ people you ask? Who knows? Everyone is different. Once I heard of an offer being rejected because the young couple buying wasn’t married and the elderly couple selling had a strong opinion about being married. They are entitled to their opinion.
To avoid potentially revealing that you are not the 'right' people, don't talk about yourself, I suggest you write a letter focusing on what you love about the house and the neighbourhood and why you want to live there.

Your REALTOR should have already called the listing agent to try to find out if the sellers have any hot buttons that you can use to your advantage. If not, ask your REALTOR® to make that phone call so you can put together the most attractive offer from the standpoint of the sellers.