Insider Tips for First-Time Home Buyers | Unlocking the Secrets of Writing a Winning Offer

If you're wondering what happens once you put an offer in, this is the perfect video for you because I'm giving you a quick rundown. Hi, my name is Kasie Gray. I'm a realtor, mom, and broker associate, and I love helping first-time sellers find their dream homes. But today, we're talking about writing an offer. And unless it's been a long time since you bought a house, this is your little refresher, your first time hearing this. Let's get into it. First, when making an offer, you're going to need a pre-approval. We're going to talk about a lot of things that we're going to offer, not just price but other terms. You know how long is escrow going to be, what is your earnest money deposit going to look like, how long were your contingencies be, and a few other things.

So no money needs to be paid when you write an offer, the money will only need to be paid within three business days of you getting your offer accepted and that's if you're putting down earnest money deposit and that's basically like a security deposit on a rental if you still have your contingencies in place you'll get that money back if not it goes towards your down payment or your closing costs so once your offer is accepted like I said you'll have three business days to get your earnest money deposit to Escrow and then we will get your inspection scheduled so that way we're on time and making sure we're reaching our contingency deadlines we will get some insurance quotes to make sure that the house can be insured and that you can afford it and we will start the mortgage loan process.

So that's where they will take a deeper dive into the things that you provided during your pre-approval process and it gets you qualified to buy the house you know not just pre-approved to buy the house part number three is once we have our inspection results back so whether we're doing a broader inspection like home inspection and a pest inspection we can do you know if those inspections determine that we need further inspecting of special areas like the AC or the roof or the windows or an electrician then we can also hire those out but once we have those inspection reports we can do some further negotiating we can either remove our contingency or do some further negotiating with the seller.

So if there's x amount of work that you had not predicted into your cost you can ask that off of the purchase price as a credit and the seller has the right to say no yes or counter and then as a buyer you have the right to accept counter or reject it and cancel escrow and at that point if you have your contingency still in place you will get your deposit back unless you are doing a VA loan none of those items are required to be repaired but if you are doing a VA loan you will have to repair section one items and those will have to be done before the appraisal process can be re-inspected or re-approved somewhere.

Along this point will also have an appraisal ordered have that appraiser come out and give value to the home if there are any health and safety issues we will deal with them then but hopefully, there are no health and safety issues can be anything from fencing in a pool to painting the siding of the house so it just depends on the type of loan that you have and the type of loan that you have and what the appraiser says about that specific house.

As I said, we'll deal with it when it comes if for some reason the house does not appraise or the seller is unable to accommodate those health and safety issues and fix them and you are unable to do them as well then you can't be able to cancel and get your deposit back same thing with inspections if you aren't able to come up with the money to cover those repairs after the house closes not necessarily saying that you have to have the money to do those repairs but typically it's the smart thing to you know to be prepared to fix things.

If they're broken that way your house is in good condition when you're ready to sell it and not falling apart but if you decide to back out after those inspections you are going to get your earnest money deposit back next about financing so during your loan processing if something happens you lose your job you open a new credit card and spend two hundred thousand dollars on it five thousand dollars on it and your credit goes down and you're no longer able to obtain that loan and it Alters your qualifications then you will be able to get your deposit back if you have a loan contingency still in place but it's important that once we enter escrow we don't buy new cars.

We don't buy furniture on credit cards and we don't quit our job mid-escrow or you know whatever it might be so when it comes to financing that is the scenario and then of course insurance so I recommend getting an insurance quote before you even have an offer accepted if it's a house that you want just because our how our areas have typical high fire areas and so you might need additional fire coverage depending on where the house is located and that can be costly so it's important to have as much knowledge as you can before going into escrow so that we don't have to cancel in six years.

I've had two deals canceled and that's because I try to do as much research beforehand for my clients so that we don't have to deal with those kinds of scenarios so if you have any questions at all about buying a house writing an offer reach out to me inspections I have a completely free guide on my website about both of those things they'll be linked down below!

Helpful Links:

Ready to sell your home? Contact me today! https:/kasie.realtor/sell

Curious about your home's value? Get a free evaluation! https:/kasie.realtor/evaluation

Planning your finances? Use our mortgage calculator! https://kasie.realtor/mortgage-calculator

FREE GUIDE to Inspections: https://kasie.realtor/inspections