You’ve found the ideal home and want to put in an offer. Before we can put an offer in on a home, there are a few things we will need from you and questions that you will need to consider:
- Full legal name: We will need the full legal name of anyone who will be on the contract as well as their phone number and email address. The legal name has to match what is on your driver’s license as you’ll need to show your driver’s license or passport at closing and this name needs to match what is on the contract.
- Initial offer price: What initial price do you want to offer for the home? Let’s have a discussion about the sale to list price in our area, as that will inform you about whether you should expect to pay below asking price, asking price, or above asking price based on today’s market. I will also email you comps to review and give you my opinion as to what the home is worth.
- Your walk away price: It’s extremely rare for a seller to accept your initial offer without some negotiating back and forth. That’s why it’s called an initial offer. In addition to deciding what offer you want to put in to start, you need to decide now how much you’re willing to pay for this property and what your walk away price is before thing get heated and emotional.
- Closing date: Typically, closing takes place around 45 days from contract acceptance. Closings can only take place Mon – Fri; they cannot take place on weekends or holidays when the banks are closed.
- Sometimes you can ask for a longer closing date (60 – 90 days) and depending on the seller’s personal situation and timeline, they may or may not be interested. While some local lenders we use can do closings faster, most lenders need 30 – 45 days.
- If you’re not getting a loan and are paying 100% cash, you can close in as quickly as 14 days.
- Down payment: For the contract, we need to know how much you’re going to put down for your down payment.
- Closing cost credits: Do you want to ask the sellers to pay any of your closing costs? Generally the sellers pay their closing costs and the buyers pay their own closings costs, however, we can ask the sellers to pay some of your closing costs on top of theirs, if needed.
- Home warranty: Do you want to ask the seller to provide a home warranty on the property? If the property doesn’t have multiple offers, we may recommend asking the seller to provide you with a one year home warranty. Depending on the type of property you’re buying, this usually costs the sellers between $500 – $800.
- Contingencies: Any other contingencies we need to be aware of? Do you need to sell your current home before we can buy this home?
Want to review the contract in advance?
Click here to review the Athens County BOR contract
Once we’ve talked through your offer and the contract and all of questions have been answered, we’ll write the contract and have you sign it online via Dotloop. Click here to view FAQs on receiving and signing documents electronically via Dotloop. We’ll then submit it to the seller’s agent. While negotiations sometimes go quickly, be prepared that it often takes 2-4 days to negotiate the purchase price and terms of the contract. Every seller is different and some people can make decisions quickly whereas others need time to think things through. Patience is the name of the game once an offer has been submitted as we don’t want to look too eager as it weakens our negotiating position!
Questions?
Call/text Uptown Realty Group at (740) 590-4882 or email info@athensuptownrealty.com