How to Make an Offer on a Home

Video Transcript

"Making an offer on a home is not a difficult task. I'm Richard Blake and I'm here to explain to you how to make an offer on a home. The first thing you want to do is consult with your local real estate agent and find out what the values of the properties are in the same neighborhood of the property that you want to make the offer on. You want to take the properties that have sold within the last 6 months. Make sure that the property is within 20 percent of the same size of the property that you want to make the offer on. For example if the square footage of the home you want to make the offer on is 1000 square feet you want to make sure not to use comparable larger than 1200 square feet nor smaller than 800 square feet. Then from there you want to make sure that the property has similar amenities such as pools, Jacuzzis, garages, lot sizes, how big the back yard is. All these items are important when calculating the correct price to make an offer. At this point what you'll want to do is have your real estate agent write up the offer for you and you're going to want to come to an agreement on when the best closing date is going to be for both parties. Meaning if the other party has already left the house then you know it's probably going to be more attractive for them to close in a much faster period of time, say 30 days or less. If the sellers have not left the property or is still living there, they have kids that sort of thing, they may want to finish up the school year and it may be more advantageous for them to wait 60, 90 or even 120 days before closing on the property. All these items are things you want to take into consideration with your, the offer that you make because obviously if you make the closing date more favorable or less favorable to the seller you're going to be able to get a little bit better price or maybe pay a little bit higher of a price depending on the situation. Several different things go into making an appropriate offer on a home. I recommend that you contact your local real estate agent, have them walk you through the steps and make the best decision possible. I'm Richard Blake. Thank you and have a great day."