making an offer....

I was wondering if you guys could give me some pointers as to how to make an offer on a home without seemingly disrespecting anyone (price being too low). Are there some various methods for different types of sellers?

Here’s what I do…

First off, I’ll assume your making the offer directly to the owner and not through a realtor.

This is a balancing act, you push too much, you piss them off and negotiations are OVER. You don’t push enough and you don’t get your offer accepted.

Start off by actually making your offer AT the home. This allows you to TACTFULLY point out things the house needs. This should be done after you get a feeling for the owner. An old lady who picked out every board in that home is not going to respond well to you picking her house apart. On the other hand, a relative who has been left the property through inheritance probably needs to have every little thing pointed out. As your showing them these things explain to them that you’re buying it KNOWING that it needs a LOT of work and the problem selling to a homeowner will be the inspection company. Their going to note everyone of these things on the report and a bank my not want to finanace the purchase with all these defects. I’m not a bank, I’m a buyer. (my favorite line)

Now back to the old lady…for her, you need to explain the advantages YOU can offer her over someone else. I’ve paid for moving expenses, dug up trees (small ones) and transplanted them for an elderly woman. (her husband had planted it) Dug through 60 years of junk to cull out what they wanted to keep. ect, ect. Don’t do any of it until they sign a P&S agreement. Just lay out your ideas.

Always be ready yesterday.
By that I mean having a P&S agreement written by a human, not a lawyer, with you. Want to scare an old lady??? Give her a attorney drafted sales agreement to sign. She’ll think your stealing her house from her. Or even better, she has HER scum bag lawyer read it and he steals the house out from under YOU. (Guess how I learned that one?) I write my own agreements in plain english, on one page of paper. If your buying the home AS IS it’s not rocket science. Sales agreements get complicated when buyers are affraid of getting screwed. If you know what your doing this isn’t an issue, you’re already getting the house at a great price, keep it simple.

Lastly…Be polite. Take your time, treat these people like you’d like to be treated. I have a great story that recently happened that I’ll share…I got a call from a guy facing bankruptcy, he had equity in his home but no job, he needed to sell ASAP. I agreed to meet him on a certain date, at the scheduled time my father called from the hospital. I dropped everything and went down there. I forgot to take this guy’s phone number with me so I never called him to tell him I wasn’t coming. BAD, BAD, BAD. (My dad was fine.) The next day I called to apologize. I asked if I could come over to look at the home. I could tell he was a little mad. On my way over I stopped at a GOOD local restaurant and got a $30 gift certificate. I looked at the house and made him an offer, then I reached into my pocket and handed him the gift card. HE COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! I told him that my dad was rushed to the hospital and I NEVER do business like that,
I was sorry and this is my way of apologizing.

Guess who bought that house 2 weeks later???

Best $30 I ever spent!!!

fdjake, great way to apologize ! even better investment than a bandit sign. :beer . harriet(fl)