How To Determine An Offer Price When Buying A Home

Posted on: 13 January 2017

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If you are preparing to buy a house and have located one you absolutely love, you will need to put in an offer on the house if you want to buy it. Before you do this, you should make sure you really want this house, because offers are valid contracts that are enforced. If you are not sure how much to offer on the house and want to pay the lowest amount possible, you may want to follow these tips as you get ready to make your offer.

Talk To Your Realtor

Before you decide how much you want to offer on the house, talk to your realtor. Remember, realtors know the housing market. They know what current prices are on homes, and they know how to make good offers to home sellers. While you do not have to offer the amount your realtor suggests, you should be aware that your realtor has a lot more knowledge with this market than you do. Because of that, you should consider making an offer that is around the amount your realtor suggests.

Look Into Comps

One of the ways realtors help home buyers come up with offer amounts is by looking at comps. Comps refer to homes in the area that recently sold. A realtor will look for comps as a way of helping you see what similar homes sold for in recent weeks or months. You can base your offer amount on the prices these homes sold for. Keep in mind, every home is different, though, and you may want to carefully compare the home you want to buy to the comps before you agree to go with an offer price.

For example, if the home you are buying needs a little work and the comps did not, you could justify offering a lower amount simply because of the work the home needs. On the other hand, if the home you are buying has a lot more upgrades and features than the comps, you may need to increase your offer amount by a little to make up for these additional features.

Consider The Demand

Finally, you may want to consider the demand for this particular home before you make an offer. If your realtor suspects that someone else may make an offer, you should make sure your offer is high enough for the seller to accept it. If you don't, you may lose out on buying that home.

If you would like other tips on buying a house and choosing the right offer price, contact a realtor today.