What You Must Know To Craft The Winning Offer

Today we're going to talk about how to knock out the competition from all those cash offers as a first-time home buyer. So as a first time home buyer, you're shopping in the same price range as investors, right? So with these investors, they are typically buying houses for cash and typically winning. So how can you win the same offer on the house that you love and compete with an investor?

So I'm going to talk to you about how we can sweeten our offer. There are three factors that go into your offer. Okay? The purchase price, your inspections, your closing costs, and you know, the time of closing. All right. So you have to really talk to your agent and come up with a good game plan.

Just like anything athletic related or home buying, you've got to come up with something that you're comfortable with. Like out of those four things, what are you comfortable with adjusting? So if we look at, let's say our, our phones, right. You know, we have those volume bars that go up and down.

And we've really got to look at, okay on the price, are we going to adjust that high so that we're up there competing? Because we know that cash investor, yeah, they have something that they can guarantee. A quick closing, no inspections, no appraisals typically.

Then we look at the closing cost. Going into this, am I looking at every single program that my lender has to offer? Am I going to ask for a lot of closing costs and a high price, but then the net to the seller is going to be lower, right? So you got to take that into consideration. So you may want to tone that down and look and see if there's other programs that are out there that can allow you to ask for less closing costs or even no closing cost and go into this transaction and have a stronger offer.

The third thing that we talked about is all of your inspections and appraisals, right? So what happens if the house is overpriced and the appraisal comes in low? I don't care if you offered a high price, the higher price that appraisal, if it comes in at this level, that's what they're going to have to sell it to you for.

So at that point, you have to look at your finances and say, Hey, can I guarantee this amount? So if it comes in five or $10,000 low, can I guarantee it? Did my agent give me all of my comparables on the house before I made an offer on it? An appraisal is a human opinion, right? So an appraiser may use three comparables and let's just say the south side of town, but the comparables on the north side of town would also appraise.

So, working with your agent hand-in-hand to find the best comparables and to meet the appraiser at the property is really crucial. And then finally the inspections, right? The inspections are really important. How many inspections are the seller going to have to worry about? Because everything's a worry, in this process. Am I going to have to worry about a termite and moisture inspection?

Have Mortgage Questions? We Can Help! Click Here

Am I going to have to worry about home inspection? Am I going to have to worry about structural inspections and things like that? All of that is taken into consideration. So this is when we've all watched that game show where you phone a friend, this would be one of those things.

You know you look at your sphere of influence, you look at the people that are around you, and you see what you're capable of doing and not doing. And that's where you're like, okay, do I want to hit them over the head with a bunch of inspection repairs or appraisal issues? Or do I want to keep it as minimal as possible? So those are the four steps and the four factors that are going to affect you when you are competing with the cash offer.

And I think a really good touch is to also, and I did this personally when I bought my most recent home, we bought in one of the best school districts in my area. And what I did was I made sure that when I went and looked at the house, I brought all my kids there.

Someone's watching, you know, it could be a nosy neighbor, it could be the agent who has talked to your agent and just let them know why you want to move into the area. Because I think we're not allowed to write those I love the house letters anymore. But if, you know, whatever your reasoning is, just make sure it's well-known and it's conveyed to the seller because that is an important factor, the human emotional part of things.

So if you have any questions on how to win the home that you love as a first time home buyer and knock out the cash offers feel free to give me a call at (757) 478-8493. And be sure to subscribe to this video right here, hit the notification, like the video, and if you want to apply or talk to me live, please feel free to click the two links below.

And once again, this is David Xie with the Xie Mortgage Team.