Strategies for Making an Offer

Whenever buyers are ready to make an offer, their most common question is "How much should I offer?" Although it seems like a simple question, the answer is not so simple, because each and every transaction is different. No two real estate transactions are exactly alike. Before you can decide how much you should offer to purchase a house, it is important that you understand the basic factors involved in making an offer.

The Human Factor
By far the most important and variable element in any real estate transaction, the "human factor" must be first and foremost in a buyer's mind. Real estate is not the only avenue that shows, on a daily basis, that people are different in a variety of ways. People communicate, negotiate, live, and think in drastically different ways. Two sellers in the exact same positions might treat a contract with identical terms for $90,000 on a $100,000 house in completely different ways. One seller might accept your offer with no alterations, while another seller may be offended and refuse to even counter-offer. The only difference between these two offers was the individual seller. Often, people allow sentimental or even desperate emotions to get in the way of their negotiations. When you decide to make an offer on a property, your job is to keep sentiments out of the negotiation as much as possible; at the end of the day, buying a home is a business transaction, and cooler heads always come out on top in negotiations.