How we get your offer accepted.

Let’s talk about getting your offer accepted on your dream home! Wherever you are in your buying process, I think the more info the better, so let’s get you a little more prepared for some of the big steps in the home buying process.

I’m going to ask myself the questions you often ask me during the beginning stages of the house hunt.

What do I need to start looking?

You need to be financially prepared to buy a home. That either means a pre-approval letter from a local lender, or that you have sufficient funds to purchase a home without help from a bank. I’m happy to connect you with a few lenders who can get the process started. Looking at homes without being financially prepared is setting yourself up for heartbreak when you find a home you love but can’t buy it.

How do we find homes to tour?

I want to know all your home criteria - neighborhood, size, condition, style, age, accessibility etc etc. If possible I try to set up an automated search for you. I also look at listings online daily, and I try to keep my eyes and ears open to what my coworkers are listing before they come to market. I know you will also be looking, so sometimes my clients find their homes, sometimes I find their homes.

When do homes come on the market?

In Portland homes typically come on the market on Thursday, and if they are popular will sell by Monday. Homes may be listed on any day of the week.

What’s it like to look at a home with you?

I think it’s really fun. I really want you to love your home, so I’m picky and hold you to your criteria, and I also try to be realistic about condition and upcoming costs. I try to point out as much as possible. I get a little ping of excitement every time I share something with a client and they say ‘I never would have noticed that!’

I found a home I want to buy, now what?

Yay! How exciting! Let’s talk about the process. We start working on writing an offer. I call the agent and get as much info as I can about what the seller wants in an offer, and learn about the timing of the offer process. Typically sellers want to keep their homes on the market over the weekend to let all potential buyers tour. So even when we write an offer immediately you might have to wait till Monday or Tuesday. We then talk about what you want your offer to look like - how much money you want to pay, what terms you want in your contract, the timing of close, etc. Explaining the choices you get to make usually takes around an hour.

How do I know how much to offer?

I usually help people make this decision based on market data to determine the value of the home, but also offer guidance based on the competition we are facing. So if it’s a competitive situation, I might send you a search of all homes of the same size/age/location sold in the last 6 months, and then also tell you that the agent said she has three offers right around $500,000. We would talk about the home, how unique it is, and how well it fits your needs, and then you get to make a decision on how competitive you want to be. The market data might tell you the home is worth $485,000 - $500,000, but you might decide that it needs to be your home and offer $510,000 to get a leg up on the other offers, or you might decide you don’t want to compete above $500,000.

How else can I make my offer competitive?

I think of the choices you make when writing an offer in two categories - money and risk. Money is pretty clear, but the risk category we spend more time on. Very broadly, you can offer to shift some risk off the seller’s shoulders onto yours in order to make your offer more competitive. The way we do that is normally with removing contingencies - so making your inspection timeline shorter, or removing the appraisal contingency. I wrote that very casually but don’t worry, these are always calculated risks that we talk through in detail.

How will you work to get my offer accepted?

When you say you want to buy a home I get very protective of that dream. I don’t like any heartbreak on my watch. I have established strong relationships with agents and a reputation as being a great communicator. I will call the agent and make sure we position ourselves as the best option for them. I’ll offer you ideas of how to make your offer more competitive. I have other strategies up my sleeve, but I can’t give everything away.

But what if the home isn’t competitive?

Great, that makes it easier to get your offer accepted. Now it’s more about how much you want to pay. Is the home overpriced? Can we convince the sellers to take less? We gather data and make a case for you!

Does all this work?

Yeah, it does! I have very happy clients and have a track record of success in competitive offer situations. And because I communicate extensively with the listing agent you will have ample warning if it’s not looking like your offer will be the one. Usually I don’t have offers rejected, more like my clients decide they don’t want to pay as much as someone else is willing to pay, and reroute to look for different options. Again, we don’t like heartbreak over here.

I just got my offer accepted, what now?

That’s clearly the topic for the next article :)

Hope that helped demystify the process! If I missed anything I don’t want to leave you hanging! Reach out with more questions and I’ll get them answered for you!