When you’ve found the home that’s the best deal for you – right features, right location/neighborhood, right for your loan, it’s time to write an offer.

Get ready to pounce!

The first question to settle in your mind is, how much do you want to offer? I know, most people think this is the only question. But it’s sooooo not!

If this is a home you and your family might live in for a number of years and you really like it, or it has some extraordinary features you haven’t seen in any other home, or it’s already priced nicely and getting a lot of attention from other buyers, you might want to offer full price or within 97% of it.

You might wonder why you’d offer full price in a buyer’s market, when most markets are seeing declines. Well, that would only be because this is a home you and your family might live in for a number of years and you really like it, or it has some extraordinary features you haven’t seen in any other home, or it’s already priced nicely and getting a lot of attention from other buyers and you’ve done all your homework (or your agent’s done it!) and it’s priced at market value.

Yes, I know I repeated myself. I’m trying to make the point that sometimes ‘getting the best deal’ is defined by how much you want the house. Don’t forget this is going to be your home. Would you really be happy getting a similar home for less money if it’s 30 minutes farther out of town when you wanted to stay close?

Emotions do come into play.

It’s not a good idea to throw caution to the winds (hence, the advice to do your homework), or to offer an above-market price, or to get tangled up in a risky loan. But remember, this is more than an investment, it’s the place where your heart can be happy.

For some of my married clients, the first house they walked into where they both smiled at the same time, I knew it was the one for them – and so did they. They were ready to do their homework and write an offer.

If you’re buying an investment property of course, you must be more cautious. I can’t cover everything you have to consider in this post, maybe there’ll be a future post for that.

Here in Colorado, your offer must be accompanied by earnest money and a letter from a lender, stating you’re qualified for the loan amount you stipulate in the offer. Read this post for more about lender letters.

Earnest money is the amount the seller has stated they want to accompany the offer.  The idea is this money proves the buyer’s intent to go through with the purchase.  It is held in an account until the day of closing, then it will go toward paying the buyer’s down payment or closing costs.

There’s so much more to tell you about how the contract should be completed and submitted, and what happens each step of the way from then on.  I always sit down with my clients and go over each page, line by line, so they understand everything about what they’re signing. And that usually takes an hour or more.

So this series is complete, and I invite you to let me know if you have any questions, or if you’d like to know more about the many ways I help my clients buy the house that’s right for them and get the best deal.

To see this entire series,start here.

I write posts on real estate issues and local events in the Denver metro area, especially those *communities between Denver and Boulder, as a public service. My hope is to give people an idea of the ‘flavor’ of our community, in case they’re new or moving to the Denver area.

I am a residential real estate agent, happily helping folks buy a house or sell a house in the beautiful and friendly *suburbs northwest of Denver.

*Arvada, Broomfield, Westminster, Thornton, Golden, Wheat Ridge, Northglen, Lakewood
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