Once you find the home you want to buy, the next step is to write an offer to purchase, which is not as easy as it sounds.
Your offer is the first step toward negotiating a sales contract with the seller. And "negotiation" is the important word here.
Since this is just the beginning of negotiations, you should put yourself in the seller's shoes and imagine his or her reaction to everything you include in your offer to purchase. Your goal is to get what you want, for as little as you can. But keeping seller's reactions in mind will help you to attain that goal without making the seller feel that they have "lost".
A good negotiation is not one where you win and the other party loses. A good negotiator knows how to win, while still allowing the other party to leave the table feeling as if they won by a mile.
The offer is much more complicated than a buyer simply coming up with a price, and a seller simply saying, "Okay, I'll take it."
Because of the huge prices involved, both the buyer and the seller wants to know that there are protections built into the contract, to limit their risks and protect their investments. And such protections might actually have a monetary value for both parties. But you wouldn't know how to take advantage of those protections without knowing a bit about offer to purchase documents and property contract clauses.
An offer to purchase real estate includes not only the purchase price you are willing to pay, but other important details of the purchase as well. This includes, occupation dates, how you intend to finance the home, any purchase deposit, whether personal property is included in the purchase, terms of cancellation of the agreement, any repairs you want performed, who appoints the transferring attorney, when does responsibility for the property pass to the buyer and how to settle disputes should they occur.
It is certainly more involved than buying a car from a car dealership. And there is much more space for negotiation.
Buying a home is a major event for both the buyer and seller. It will affect your finances more than many other purchase or investment transactions. The seller makes his future plans based on your offer to purchase, so it definitely affects his finances, too. However, there are things more important than plain old money, for both parties.
In the half-hour might take to write an offer to purchase property you are making decisions that will affect how you live for the next several years, if not the rest of your life. But the seller is going to review your offer carefully as well, because it also affects how he or she lives the rest of their life.
That sounds very dramatic. But it is true. And the fact that you realise this, can improve the way you negotiate.
Don't get stuck into just negotiating for price. There is a lot more to buying a home. So, prepare yourself before starting the process of buying a home. And the more you know, the better, I say.
