You Can Win a Bidding War For Your New Home

It’s a Sellers’ Market! Today’s market has buyers bidding against each other for a low inventory of desirable homes. As if the prospect of buying a home wasn’t stressful enough, waiting to find out if your offer was accepted can heighten the emotions and make the waiting unbearable. Luckily, there are things you can do to better your chances of winning a bidding war.

Use a Pre-approval Letter:
A Pre-Approval letter is different than being Pre-Qualified.
A Pre-Qualification is a snapshot of your credit worthiness based on the verbal information you supply to your lender.verifies your income and how much your bank might lend you based on your credit.
A Pre-Approval Letter means that your lender has essentially underwritten your application and it is simply pending an appraisal. Submitting your financing documents to your lender before making any offers will allow you to act quickly when you are ready to make an offer on a new house.

Start with Your Best Offer:
You only get one chance to make a good first impression, which is why you should submit your best offer up front if possible. By doing your research and determining the value of comparable homes in the neighborhood, you can present an accurate and competitive offer. In an extremely competitive market, most houses will sell for over the asking price, so be sure to factor that into the price of the home you are considering.

Limit Your Demands:
Sellers want clean offers; not those that come with a lot of demands or contingencies. For example, if you can avoid asking the seller to cover your closing costs, or trying to get them to make repairs as part of the negotiations, you might have a better chance of having your offer accepted. Sellers have the advantage in a multiple-bid situation and the less complicated you make yours, the more likely they are to say yes.

Give the Seller More Time:
If you can be flexible with your moving timeline, it might give you the competitive edge to offer the seller more time to move out of the home. Not only will they be selling at a price they are comfortable with, but they now have the added bonus of making their own move less stressful. You can offer to have the seller rent back the home for a period of time, or push back the closing date.

Make it Personal:
It may seem silly, but some buyers are swayed by the personal touch of a hand written letter expressing why their home is perfect for you. You can introduce yourself in the letter, tell the seller all about your family, the things you love about the house, and the memories you hope to create there. If the seller is sentimental, they might appreciate the personal touch you’ve added to your offer and feel better knowing who is going to be living in their home.

Stay in Touch:
Even if you find yourself on the losing end of a bidding war, have your realtor keep in touch. A lot of things can happen between an accepted offer and the actual closing. If your offer was in top consideration, you might win out in the end should the initial buyer have complications.

Reach out to Me to discuss your mortgage options and to take advantage of my FREE JumpStart Mortgage Pre-Approval service

https://rickcignoli.norcommortgage.com/

 

 

5 Tips for Millennial Home Buyers

The Millennial generation has a considerably more challenging road to homeownership in large part to increased student debt and challenges with credit. Oftentimes, Millennials looking to buy their first home are under the impression that it’s not possible and choose to rent instead. However, by following these 5 buying tips, the Millennial generation can make the goal of owning a home a reality.

1.) Stay Within Budget
It can be easy to get caught up in a passionate bidding war when you think you’ve found your dream home. Unfortunately, this often happens to First Time Home Buyers who forget to stick to their budget. Once Pre-Approved for a mortgage and a down payment is calculated, it’s imperative to stick to those numbers and not offer more. A real estate agent can run comparables of homes in the area you are looking at and help determine a reasonable offer.

2.) Save!
This might seem like an obvious tip, but for Millennials, it’s crucial. With surmountable student debt, high credit card bills, and the overall cost of living, saving is often easier said than done. However, by determining the cost of your potential down payment, even setting aside a small amount each month over time will help you reach your goal of owning a home within your set budget.

3.) Get the Help of Professionals
It might seem tempting to take on the home buying process on your own, perhaps with the idea of saving a little money in mind. In reality, enlisting the help of a loan officer and a real estate agent can save you a lot of headaches down the road. When it comes to any complicated closing issues, or language in contracts that might be confusing, you’ll be thankful that you have the help of people familiar with the process.

4.) Find Who You Like and Who You Know
Building off of the last tip, there are many professionals you can choose from to help you. Make sure that you are comfortable with who is helping you buy your first home. Take the time to find somebody you can trust and can communicate well with so that your needs and goals are being met throughout the entire process.

5.) Consider Doing it Yourself
It is a great idea to have an idea of what home repairs and projects you are willing to take on yourself as a new homeowner, and which you would want a professional for. In addition, which projects would give you more return on your investment should you decide to sell later on. By doing this, you’ll be sure you are submitting the best offer on the home you want and hopefully will minimize and surprise expenses down the road.

As they say, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” And today’s Millennials are proof of that. Do you have questions about buying your First Home?
Reach out to Me to discuss your mortgage options and to take advantage of my FREE JumpStart Mortgage Pre-Approval service.

https://rickcignoli.norcommortgage.com/