We found our home and want to submit an offer.
Awesome! You’ve found the perfect home and want to put in an offer. In today’s market we need to put your offer in asap; we ideally do it within a few hours. Before we can put an offer in on a home, there are a few things we need you to go over.
Full legal name: It is important for us to know the full legal name of anyone who will be on the contract as well as their phone number and email address.
Offer price: What price do you want to offer for the home? Let’s compare, and see what the current market is showing us to expect.
Your walk away price: Don’t expect to pay your initial offer price as it’s rare for a seller to accept your initial offer without some negotiating back and forth. That’s why it’s called an initial offer. In addition to deciding what offer you want to put in to start, we need you to decide now how much you’re willing to pay for this property and what your walk away price.
Closing date: Typically in Chicago, closing takes place 45-60 days from contract acceptance. Therefore, if you want to move around February 1, plan on putting in offers at the beginning of December (Now). If you’re paying cash you can often close faster than 30 days, 45 days is usually the required minimum if you’re using a mortgage to buy the property.
Earnest money: How much earnest money are you comfortable putting down on this property? Generally there are two earnest money payments. The first payment is due 1-2 business days after you and the sellers have signed the contract. The second earnest money check is due 2 business days after the inspection and attorney review is completed, about 1 – 2 weeks after everyone has signed the contract. Depending on where we are buying the second earnest money may not be necessary. The earnest money is part of your down payment. Therefore, if you’re planning to put $10,000 down for a down payment and you’re paying $5,000 in earnest money then at closing you would owe an additional $5,000 for the remainder of the down payment.
Down payment: We will cover this with your loan officer and you. As it may differ on what we write in contract depending on financing and purchase type.
Closing cost credits: Will you be asking for any credits for closing costs which would go towards the amount of closing cost fees you will pay for on top of your down payment?
Contingencies: Any other contingencies we need to be aware of? Are you waiting for a settlement check to clear? Need to close on the sale of your home?
Would you like a home warranty? If we will be asking for a home warranty this is the time to announce it, as we will want to submit with our initial offer.
Once we have covered everything and have the contract written up, we will either meet with you or send you the contract to e-sign via SignNow. We’ll then submit it to the seller’s agent. While negotiations sometimes go quickly, be prepared that it could take 24 – 96 hours to negotiate the purchase price if the seller is out of town, wants to sleep on the offer for a night, or if we’re dealing with a bank. Every seller is different and some people can make decisions quickly whereas others need time to think things through.
If you have any questions reach us at (708) 860-0346 or sammy(at)sellchicago(dot)net
