Hire an Agent to Represent You. Be specific about your needs and wants in case your agent gets wind of something coming on the market that may meet your criteria. If you are sitting on Zillow and contacting who you assume is the listing agent —it is costing you valuable time. Time is not your friend in this market and you need to sign an agency agreement when buying in CT.
Pay Cash If You Can. The seller will know that the contract will not fail for lack of financing. Provide proof of funds with your offer.
Get a Jump Start on Your Full Preapproval Today. By preapproval I mean a mortgage approval subject only to locating a property and a satisfactory appraisal. This is different from a prequalification which carries less strength overall and especially in a multi-bid situation. If you don’t have a preferred lender, your agent should have recommendations. Remember that if you are self-employed you will have more hoops to jump through, including 2 years of tax returns and expenses.
Contingencies Matter. Write a clean contract with minimal contingencies. Consider an as-is purchase with inspections for informational purposes only. You can still request repairs or terminate the contract.
Include One Strong Deposit With Your Offer. Not a first and second deposit. 3-5 % of the purchase price will likely trump other offers but you can only recover $5,000 of the deposit through small claims court if your contract goes south and the seller is reluctant to release it.
Use an Escalation Clause. Many properties are selling above listing price. Discuss with your agent how much higher you are willing to go and have your agent add an escalation clause, automatically increasing your bid when faced with “highest and best.” Remember that by increasing your bid by $10,000 (if financed) it is $45/month maximum to you but is $10,000 less the seller’s will receive at closing.
Exceed the List Price when requesting seller-paid closing costs and build your costs into the financing and not out of the seller’s pocket.
Waive Your Financing Contingency but be aware that doing this puts your deposit at risk if you cannot perform.
Line Up Your Home Inspection as Soon as You Identify a Property. Your dates for inspection and reports will be tighter and should shave 3-4 days off of other competing offers. Worst case scenario, you’ll need to cancel it.
Shoot for a Quick Closing Date or Opt for Flexibility (close at seller’s convenience). Your agent should ask the listing agent when writing the offer about any conditions or contingencies that could make your offer more attractive to the sellers. It’s not always about the highest bidder.
Write a Letter. You can even include photos. Maybe the seller is a fellow dog lover? Not always a fan of the letter but sometimes with the right seller it can help push your offer to the top.
Strategize With Your Agent. What is your highest and best offer if it comes to that? Decide on a number early before you are asked to produce it under pressure. Will you be devastated if you don’t get this house or are you content to lose it at a specific price? How unhappy will you be if you lose this property for $2,000, $5,000, $10,000? It's true, you win some you lose some but with the right agent and the right strategy you can be the victor in any multi-bid situation.
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