4. Submit Your Offer

Now that you and your agent (you know who) have found the perfect home, it’s time to writer an offer.

In this step, your agent will provide all the necessary data about the home you are interested in. The data will include statistics of home sales, prices, days on market, etc. This data will assist you in making an educated offer amount.

At this time your agent will also request a few things to be submitted with the offer:

*Pre-qualification letter: We mentioned in Step 2: Choose Your Lender, that you will receive a pre-qaul letter.
*Proof of funds: When you write an offer there is usually an amount that will be paid as a down payment. According to the contract that you sign, you need to show proof that you have the funds available to close. A bank statement will suffice.
*Deposit check: When you write an offer, a deposit is made to the seller (usually 3% of purchase price). The deposit makes the seller aware that you are a serious buyer and can risk taking the home off the market. This check is not deposited until escrow has been opened.
*If we are your agents, we will also submit a little background information about you so that the seller can get an idea of who is buying the home.

Gathering this information makes for a very strong offer!

What about the offer? Here is a list of all the document required to submit an offer. There’s a lot of signing, repeating, disclosures, addenda, advisories and so forth. Your agent will be able to walk you through the whole thing and make sure you know what it is your are signing.

Once everything is in place, your agent will submit the offer to the seller. The seller then has the option to reject your offer, accept your offer, or more commonly, counter your offer. This is where your agents expertise and professionalism in negotiating comes into place. Once you and the seller have agreed on all the terms and price, escrow can be opened.