When making an offer to buy a property it’s advisable to first select a real estate agent that can represent you. There are many reasons why hiring a real estate professional makes sense. One of them is they have the current market information and can provide valuable assistance when drafting your offer. A real estate professional will also communicate your Offer to Purchase to the seller (or the seller’s agent) and be able to negotiate on your behalf.
At times a real estate agent can also help you sell an existing property & buy another in the same time. A good agent can provide invaluable information to make the entire process less stressful and operate smoothly.
When it comes time make the offer there are several methods to consider:
1. Firm Offer to Purchase
This is normally the most popular method as it’s preferable to the seller. It means the you (the buyer) are prepared to purchase the home as is, without any conditions.
2. Conditional Offer to Purchase
This is also a popular method whereby you (the home buyer) puts one or more conditions on the purchase, such as subject to: “appropriate financing”, “home inspections” and so forth. In this type of offer the sale cannot go though until all the conditions of the offer have been meet by the seller.
3. Acceptance of Offer
Offers can go back and forth between the buyer’s agent & seller’s agent for quite some time. Essentially the buyer presents an offer, then the seller can accept it, reject it, or submit a counter offer back to you. This could happen due to various things regarding the sale such as the sale price, the closing date or other details that can be negotiated. Once both parties are in agreement on all the terms the seller accepts the offer in writing. From that point on you can consider yourself a new home owner. Congrats!