Knowing When to Make a Purchase Offer is Half the Battle

How do home buyers know when it's time to make a purchase offer?

A few years ago, I showed homes in Sacramento to a single woman from the Sierra foothills who wanted to buy her first home. We toured seven or eight on Saturday and met again on Sunday to see another half dozen. When we finished, I asked for her opinion. She was not ready to make a decision. Against my advice, she decided to think about it overnight and promised to call me on Monday.

The following morning, she called to say she wanted to buy the first house we toured in Rosemont, an affordable community in Sacramento County. However, when I checked availability in MLS -- as it so often happens -- the home had sold the night before.

She did not understand that when she found a home she liked, she should make an offer. But the next home she wanted, she wrote a purchase offer on the spot, balancing the paperwork on the hood of my car. Afterward, I waited for the seller's agent to show up, and we presented it within minutes, before any other offer had a snowball's chance in the Mojave of getting accepted . . . read more about when to make a purchase offer.

More Articles by Elizabeth Weintraub, click below:

• Buying Your First Home
  
• Finding the Right Home
  
• Buying Swimming Pool Homes

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