Last February, a huge 667,000 houses were sold across the country. This may seem like a lot, but if you’ve ever bought a house, you’ll know the struggle that comes with each and every one of these sales. Buying a house is a ton of work and effort that is bound to make you stressed.

One of the worst parts of the process is making an offer on a house. You want to get a good deal, but you need to know how much to make your house offer. It can be an absolute minefield.

As we know exactly how difficult it can be to make the first offer on a house, we’ve got some top tips for you. We’ve trawled through expert advice to bring you the strategies that you need to be successful. 

If you’re ready to avoid clumsy mistakes and make the housebuying process a little easier, then read on! 

1. Have Your Mortgage Pre-Approved

Before you can start making an offer on a house, you need to know how much you can spend. This is crucial to your odds of success in buying it. No one likes being messed around.

Go to your mortgage lender and get a pre-approval letter. This shows the real estate agent that you’re serious. They’ll give you better treatment and be more willing to let you buy the house if they know you’ve actually got the cash ready.

This letter will let your agent know your credit score, your assets, and more. It also shows exactly how much they will be willing to lend you. Add all of these factors together, and the agent is much more willing to take you seriously.

Don’t wait until you’re interested before you apply. Pre-approval will cost you, but it will save you a lot of bother down the road.

2. Do Thorough Research Before Making an Offer on a House

Before you make your first house offer, do your research. You need to know all about the house and the area before you think of offering a certain sum. The real estate agent may not tell you everything about the property unless you explicitly ask: there could be problems lurking.

The price of the home is usually based on comparable homes in the area. Note “comparable.” This does not mean that they are exactly the same, and could lack issues that this home has.

You should view the home with a critical eye, but your research needs to go beyond that. Get local records and dig into information about the house. You could even research the seller too, look into them on social media and see what you can find. 

In short, you want to find out anything that is affecting the house. You also want to find out, if you can, why the seller wants to sell the house in question. Is there any work that needs to be carried out?

All of these factors need to be taken into account when making your first offer on a house. If you’d like some more advice about what should go into making the offer, check out this home offer guide!

3. Making the Offer: A Guide

When you’ve done your research and got pre-approved, it’s time to actually make an offer. This is possibly the most difficult step in the whole process. If you’re not a fan of haggling, then be prepared to find it exceptionally awkward, too.

Never fear! We’ve got your back. 

Don’t ever offer a ridiculously low price. If you lowball by an insulting margin, the seller may decline and refuse to sell to you. Don’t base the offer around what you’d like to pay: that may as well be zero.

Instead, base the price around what the home is worth. Take everything into account, including:

• Location
• Condition of the house
• Any interesting features
• Any problems

Don’t assume that you can haggle up from what amounts to an insult. You can’t, especially not in a seller’s market. Be reasonable: the seller will expect you to haggle, so start with a little under what the home is worth and work from there.

Oh, and don’t ever offer the asking price. Do that, you’ll be essentially giving the seller license to take extra money from you. Be wise and shoot for under its real value.

4. Don’t Include Too Many Contingencies

Contingencies are awesome for any buyer. They give you an easy out if the property or the concept of buying it no longer appeals. If you include too many, though, you could get declined by the seller.

That’s because a contingency represents a possibility of the deal not going through. If you add too many to the offer, you’re giving the seller less assurance that you’re serious. This means that they’re not as likely to take you up on the offer.

Only add essential contingencies. Don’t crowd the offer with them.

5. Stay Rational

When you’re looking at a house, it’s easy to fall in love. Falling in love with a home shouldn’t impact your ability to make an impartial house offer. When you’re thinking of making an offer on a house, stay objective as much as you can.

Let yourself see the home’s flaws and any work that you may need to do on it. Sure, those hardwood floors or that corner bath might be awesome, but will they end up costing you more? Even if the house you end up buying doesn’t have these features, you can always add them.

Stay clear-headed and keep your cool.

Buying a Home Can Be Easy

Making an offer on a house can be nervewracking and one of the worst parts of the home buying experience. The thing is, it doesn’t need to be so hard. If you follow the advice that we’ve given you, you’ll be making great offers and sealing the deal in no time!

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