Finding the right home for you can be a long, time-consuming process. But once you’ve found ‘the one’, you probably want to move quickly – especially in a hot property market – so understanding how to get the ball rolling is highly important.
The most important tip? Unless you’re making a cash offer, is to get pre–assessed for a home loan prior to hitting the open homes. From there, once a sales contract is in place, putting an application in for conditional approval would be next. An offer backed by a pre–approval letter looks much better to sellers than one without. Plus, we can work with / communicate with their Real Estate agent to give them peace of mind that the offer is legitimate, and they are not wasting the sellers time in accepting this offer subject to the 21-day finance clause. Note, finance clauses could be less if the Lender’s SLA is less.
Here are Fox Home Loans, we offer a Free Home Valuation Report on any property that they are considering making an offer on. This report gives you range from Low – Mid – High bids for the property, recent sales in the area and even previous sale prices of the property that you are buying. Speak with us about how you can get you hands on this detailed property report.
The process of making an offer is actually very easy. All you need to do is contact the real estate agent and tell them what you’re willing to pay. The agent will liaise with the seller and get back to you. You can do this via a phone call, put it in writing in an email, or even in person if you would like.
But it’s not the act of making the offer that will set you apart from your competitors – it’s the lead up. Knowledge is power – at the stage where you are making an offer, you should know your financial situation, have learned the suburb conditions, scoped out the property, and researched the competition.
Put yourself in the seller’s shoes – selling a home is tedious and sellers are often looking for the easiest option possible. Therefore, you need to make the process easy for them, get your finance pre-approved so you know exactly what resources you’re working with, and remain cautious of time. Before you can make an offer, you must know your limits, and this is where we at Fox Home Loans come in. We also need to advise our clients that they can always put an offer in as long as they have a finance clause in. (usually 21 days)
Attending the first open inspection for a property is important. This allows you to gauge the level of interest – if it isn’t busy then the seller is much more likely to take up an offer. If there are a lot of people, check to see how many are asking for copies of contracts or asking about early offers. This should tell you what competition you’re up against and you can set your offer accordingly.
Home inspections quickly become overwhelming, but you need to be at your peak if you want to get in a good offer. While you’re scoping the competition at the inspection, make sure you’re getting (and retaining) information as efficiently as possible. You don’t have much wriggle room for hesitation when making an early offer.
If you found that interest in the property wasn’t hot, it’s tempting to delay putting in an offer in a bid to make the seller desperate. However, your best bet is to get in early and confidently and set the seller a quick deadline to get back to you. This puts you in an ideal place to negotiate. A reasonable response period to set would be about 48 hours, this gives the seller time to decide but limits other buyers from getting in before you.
Playing games with the real estate agent is a sure way to not be taken seriously. Real estate agents do this every day, they’d rather deal with upfront buyers than people trying to pull the wool over their client’s eyes. They know that most people making an offer pre-auction are either looking for a bargain or trying to cut through the competition, because presumably the property suits their needs. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by under-offering and missing out to a higher bidder. Get a free suburb report and educate yourself on what you’re buying into, so you know your offer is reasonable.
If you’re putting in an offer, expect to negotiate. You’ll probably be negotiating against other buyers, so whether you’re dealing directly with the seller or via an agent, you want your offer to stand out.
Remember, your main priority is to make it easy for the seller. Do some research and learn about the seller’s situation. If they’ve already purchased another home, offer a settlement date that lets them avoid bridging finance or finding temporary accommodation between settlements.
We are here to give you guidance throughout your home buying journey, speak with us for more information today on 1300 665 906.
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Bill has over 26 years of experience working in the finance industry. He has worked across a number of different businesses including Home Loans, Personal Loans, Collections and Insurances. Bill's passion is to utilise his knowledge and experience in the industry to assist clients in meeting their financial goals.
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