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Writing
an Offer to Purchase Real Estate
Once you find the home
you want to buy, the next step is to write an offer – which is not as
easy as it sounds. Your offer is the first step toward negotiating a
sales contract with the seller. Since this is just the beginning of
negotiations, you should put yourself in the seller’s shoes and
imagine his or her reaction to everything you include. Your goal is to
get what you want, and imagining the seller’s reactions will help you
attain that goal.
The offer is much more
complicated than simply coming up with a price and saying, "This is
what I’ll pay." Because of the huge dollar amounts involved,
especially in today’s litigious society, both you and the seller want
to build in protections and contingencies to protect your investment and
limit your risk.
In an offer to purchase
real estate, you include not only the price you are willing to pay, but
other details of the purchase as well. This includes how you intend to
finance the home, your down payment, who pays what closing costs, what
inspections are performed, timetables, whether personal property is
included in the purchase, terms of cancellation, any repairs you want
performed, which professional services will be used, when you get
physical possession of the property, and how to settle disputes should
they occur.
It is certainly more
involved than buying a car. And more important.
Buying a home is a major
event for both the buyer and seller. It will affect your finances more
than any other previous purchase or investment. The seller makes plans
based on your offer that affect his finances, too. However, it is more
important than just money. In the half-hour it takes to write an offer
you are making decisions that affect how you live for the next several
years, if not the rest of your life. The seller is going to review your
offer carefully, because it also affects how he or she lives the rest of
their life.
That sounds dramatic. It
sounds like a cliché. Every real estate book or article you read says
the same thing.
They all say it because
it is true.
copyright 2000 by Terry
Light and RealEstate ABC |
