00:28: Theodora: Hello, and welcome to 680 Home Video Channel, a web series where we answer all of your real estate questions. I’m your host Theodora and I’m talking to local East Bay real estate broker Doug Buenz.
00:37: Hi Doug, it’s great to see you again!
00:43: Today we’re gonna talk about the offer process a little further. Doug, are there ways that you can strengthen or better your offer without raising the price?
00:53: Doug: Well, sure. Obviously price is important to sellers. They’re human. But there are other factors that are important to sellers too and it depends on the situation. There are a lot of ways to make your offer more attractive to sellers.
01:05 One of them would be a fast close of escrow. In certain situations where the guy’s maybe transferring cross country, or is facing foreclosure, or has some financial hardship, a fast close of escrow is worth value to that type of seller. So you can get a better price if you typically offer a faster close of escrow.
01:29 Flexibility and move out. The opposite extreme would be a seller who is not sure where they’re going to land. They want to sell their house and buy a bigger house but they’re not sure which one and they may need some time to investigate which houses they would like to pursue. And as a buyer, if you can offer a seller in that situation flexibility, a lot of times that’s worth something in terms of price as well and you’re solving one of the seller’s problems by being flexible. So that’s another way of potentially getting a better price.
02:01 Shorter contingency periods. The more certainty that you can add as a purchaser, typically the more value there is to a seller and that often translates into them being willing to accept a lower price.
02:15 Waive contingencies when the market is overheated. You see a lot of these where the buyer will waive their appraisal contingency, or loan contingency, or even their inspection contingency which I would never recommend. But if there’s a contingency that really doesn’t have much risk to a purchaser if they have money to buy the property in cash, they can waive their loan contingency and that connotes more certainty to the seller. This can translate into a better price or certainly put the purchaser in a more competitive position if there’s multiple offers.
02:47 A larger deposit. A large deposit connotes strength and seriousness of intent. So, if you put down a larger deposit, it sometimes means a seller thinks you’re more serious and will be willing to take perhaps a little lower price in exchange for that.
03:05. Pre-approval from a lender is huge and I’m not talking minor lenders. I’m talking about major lenders. If you have a pre-approval from major lenders you’re adding certainty to the transaction and for most sellers that’s attractive and they're willing to compensate you by maybe accepting a lower price.
03:28 The more motivated a seller is, the more value they place on certainty and the more that these various strategies will have an impact in helping you obtain the property for a lower price.
03:48: If you have real estate questions or need assistance I do hope you’ll give me a call. I’m worthy of your trust.
**In case you can not view this video here, please click the link below to view How to Make Your Offer More Attractive when Buying a Pleasanton Home on my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/SL1UQf9B3Vs **
