PART 4: What to know before making an offer.
You’ve spent hours scouring the internet, you’ve slogged through countless open houses, you know the inside of your Realtor’s car a little too well and now you’ve finally found a home you think you can live in.
Now what?
Lets talk about the price. First, don’t get too caught up on the price tag of the home you want to buy because there’s another number that’s just as important: the price for which the neighbors house just sold.
Your realtor will give you a list of recent sold homes in the neighborhood. Because every home is different, you’ll have to adjust for things like size, number of bedrooms, condition, but by looking at a handful of recent sold homes, you should be able to come up with a market value of what the home is worth. And it’s probably going to be less than the listed price.
A few more details before you put pen to paper:
- Taxes. You can get these from your county assessors office.
- Insurance. A good rule of thumb is $1000 a year.
- Energy costs. Especially if you’re upgrading to a larger home.
It’s also important to put yourself in the mind of the seller. Your Realtor should be talking to their Realtor to glean the seller’s motivation. Maybe they’re getting a job transfer this month, or they need to sell their own home to buy another one. If so, you can assume that they will entertain other offers. Also, ask if the home has had any inspections. That way, if there is work that needs to be done you can reflect that in your offer instead of worrying about it after they’ve signed your contract.
