Making an
Offer
Most of the time, a real estate agent will be hesitant to give you
a price of a home. However, this does not mean that you will not need his expertise in identifying the
price of the property you want to purchase. In this case, you will need his help in acquiring the
essential information to identify the price of the property.
Among the most important things you need to find out is the reason why the
owner is selling the property. However, this is not easy to obtain as agents normally refuse to disclose the
information. The best way to identify the reason behind the selling is to talk to the neighbors of the owner
casually. You will usually get valuable information from them.
You will also need to check the state of the market. The state of the market
will help you determine the behavior of the seller. You will not have problems making an offer if there are
many sellers in the market and few buyers, just like the state of the market today. There are a lot of homes
being sold today but there are very few buyers in the market.
Because of such situation, sellers will welcome low offers. However, this will
not be the same if there are several buyers.
In this situation, the seller will not entertain any offer that is less than
what is indicated in the list price.
Many ignore the information on how much the seller paid for the property
because of the current state of the market. However, this will make your task easier especially if the owner
just recently bought the property. The offer is usually higher or closer to what the seller paid for. You can
check the condition of the house and adjust the price once you have identified the price of the property. Base
your adjustments on the renovations and improvements made.
You should also check on the mortgage balance of the seller as this will also
affect his decisions. If he is in default, he will likely accept an offer that is lower than the actual value
of the property. If his mortgage is high, he may need to sell the house right away and will accept decent
offers on the property. However, if his mortgage is low, he will usually take his time and will likely wait for
the market to acquire list price.
You can also use the comparable sales. If you are using this, see to it that
you are comparing similar properties. Check the location, the age and the size. Keep in mind that these factors
affect the price of the house. Although the house may look the same, their values will vary if they are located
in different locations. In the same way, it will vary if the age and size is different as well.
You should also study the trend in the market. You can use the list and sales
price for this. If the sales price is declining by 3% percent each month, you can use that to forecast the
value of the property you are planning to buy.
Use the right information to come up with a sensible offer.