Real Estate : Making an Offer

Installment #14

We have now covered various ways of getting the money to start investing, as well as explained in depth what needs to be included at a minimum in the lease purchase option contract. We are now going to move along to the making an offer for the piece of property of your choosing.

Making an offer means that if the seller accepts your offer, you will be purchasing the property for the amount you offer to the seller. This amount can be well below the asking price; however, the seller is not required to accept your offer. It is always a good idea to have worked on building a rapport with a seller before making an offer. This way you can better tailor the offer around the needs of the seller and your needs. This will help you achieve a much higher rate of seller acceptances.

It is important to make offers in a professional, diplomatic, and mature manner. Calling someone to say "Yo I wanna buy yo house fo $80,000" is a completely unacceptable way of making an offer. You should close your internet browser window and walk away now if you do not see a problem with that type of offer to purchase a piece of property. If however you are aware that the offer was inappropriate, then you can proceed to learn how to make an acceptable offer.

Before you can make an offer, you need to realize that if the seller does not accept your offer that does not mean it is over, they may make a counteroffer. You need to know your financial limitations so that you know when you need to walk away from the property and move on. You need to know your financial limits before making an offer to save everyone time and effort as the negotiations go back and forth for a while.

While making a verbal offer is acceptable to an individual seller, it is best to do things in writing for a more professional image, as well as the ability to keep detailed records of which properties you made offers on in case you want to review the previous offers you have made at a later point in time. Your written offer should be given to the Real Estate Agent or Broker if one is working on the property or directly to the owner if they are selling the property themselves.