Making an offer

When it’s time to make an offer on a house, we’ll help you make decisions on how much to offer and what terms to negotiate on. In theory, everything is negotiable.

The market ultimately sets the sale price of a home. We’ll do market analysis to determine if the house seems fairly/over/under priced. We’ll also consider the condition, how long it has been on the market, and how badly you want the home. If there are multiple interested parties in the home, and the seller has received multiple offers, this may also impact your offer terms. 

  • We’ll always ask if there are other offers. The seller’s agent may / may not be able to tell us.
  • If possible, we can ask the seller to pay for part of all your closing costs. Generally, seller contributions to buyer’s closing costs cannot exceed 3%, however there are situations when that number can be higher. 
  • Whenever possible, it’s best to get a home inspection so that you can understand the various components of your home, what’s in working order, and what needs attention immediately or to keep an eye on. 
  • An earnest money amount (usually 1-2% of the offer) is written with the offer. When the offer is accepted, the funds must be deposited to a trust account at the seller’s broker within 2 business days of offer acceptance. At closing, the earnest money goes toward the purchase of the home, and is essentially a pre-payment of a portion of your down payment.
  • If there are any special assessments or unique tax situations, generally we will ask for the seller to be responsible for resolving those, however this can be a point of negotiation, especially when a seller has received notice of upcoming work that will start after the home has sold. 
  • In Minnesota, the appliances generally stay with a home when it is sold, however we will include a Personal Property agreement signed by you and the sellers to ensure they will stay, along with any other appliances or non-affixed items you may be interested in.