After locating your home, the next step is to draft and present an offer to the seller. At this stage, there are several important details that must be taken into account because your offer has serious legal consequences.

The purchase-and-sale agreement
In the state of Washington, the offer is submitted in the form of a formal purchase-and-sale agreement. In the event the seller accepts your offer, the purchase-and-sale agreement becomes a legally binding contract.

Thus, the drafting of your purchase-and-sale agreement requires careful planning, meticulous attention to detail and coordination between agent and client to ensure all parties are fully aware of all offer details.

In the event a buyer fails to perform any obligation in the purchase-and-sale agreement, the buyer risks forfeiture of his or her earnest money or other legal remedies that may be available to the seller.

Conduct research
Once you have alerted us to a home you are interested in making an offer to purchase, we undertake detailed research on the seller’s listing price. Our research is usually focused around the most recent home sales in your neighborhood. However, oftentimes comparable home sales are difficult to locate and values must be extrapolated from a variety of sources. Therefore, we also consult a variety of home value resources such as current home listings, recent price reductions, sales subject to inspection or other contingencies as well as trends in valuations by a city or county taxing authority for tax assessment purposes.

Comparative market analysis
We utilize our research to prepare a comparative market analysis (CMA). We then present the findings of our CMA to you. The CMA serves as an independent evaluation of the seller’s offer price and the results of our CMA may be forwarded to the seller if we determine the seller’s offer price to be too high. This also provides you insight on the likely level of competition among buyers for the property you are interested in.

Offer strategies
Once we have conducted our price research and have determined the offer price, we next formulate a strategy for your offer. In formulating your offer strategy, we will explain offer details such as earnest money, downpayment, as well as the closing date, offer acceptance and the proposed timetable for the parties to perform their respective obligations. We also consult with you on whether you desire to include sale contingencies such as financing and inspection in your offer.

Drafting the offer
After arriving at your offer details, we carefully draft your offer. In the state of Washington, an offer to purchase real estate is made in the form of a purchase-and-sale agreement (PSA). The PSA contains your offer details and various deadlines for each party to perform various tasks. For example, if you are financing your home purchase, the PSA will contain the deadline by which your lender must approve your loan. Our attorney broker reviews all offers before they are submitted to the seller’s agent.

Review offer with you
Once the offer has been drafted, you will be called upon to review the offer to ensure your understanding of offer details. We review the offer with you to ensure that you fully understand all offer details and are willing and able to perform the obligations contained in the purchase-and-sale agreement.

Offer presentation
Sometimes, the presentation of your offer can carry significant weight with the seller. In cases where a seller has more than one offer, we will make a request to personally present the offer to the seller. We will invite you along to the presentation so you can introduce yourself and speak to the seller in person. Connecting with a seller on a personal basis is much different than a seller simply reviewing a contract submitted by a real estate agent. In cases where the seller has yet to receive an offer, a short letter may be included with your offer describing you and your family along with the reasons you desire to purchase the seller’s home.

Negotiation
After presenting your offer to the seller, the negotiations with the seller’s agent will begin. With your objectives in mind, we answer questions and advocate your objectives to the seller’s agent in a prompt and calculated manner. We negotiate the best price and transaction terms for your home purchase given existing market conditions and your personal situation. Our agents will discuss various approaches to negotiating and recommend the best option for that specific circumstance. If the seller requests any modifications to your offer, our agents draft and present such modifications in the form of a counteroffer.

Questions
We welcome your questions regarding offer strategies and the offer stage. To schedule a free consultation, please contact us at: (206) 909-8777 (toll-free: 1-800-206-6612) or by email at: info@navigationre.com.