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Ira & Carol Serkes
Berkeley Real Estate
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Home > Buyer Systems > Buying Strategies

Buying Strategies

  • Home Work
  • Market Conditions
  • Customized Home Updates
  • Crafting Your Offer
  • Buying Strategies
  • Inspections
  • Closing

Determine Which Contingencies To Include in Your Offer

Here are the main contingencies you can have in your offer. We’ll discuss the pros and cons of removing one or more contingencies while protecting yourself.

Loan
You’ll be pre-approved before you make your offer

Appraisal
Buyers with large down payments sometimes remove this contingency

Inspection
It’s essential to know what condition the house is in. Most sellers will have a full set of home inspections and reports as part of their disclosure package.

Pages from a typical Property Disclosure Package - we review every page with you
Pages from a typical Property Disclosure Package – we review every page with you

Title
We’ll make sure you take free of current liens

Insurance
It’s particularly important to set up insurance when you make an all-cash purchase

Your Offer Strategy Depends On How Many Offers A Home Receives

If you’re the only bidder, you can get the home at a lower price than if you’re competing with other buyers. 

Graph showing the relationship between number of offers and overbids from the list price
Graph showing the relationship between number of offers and overbids from the list price

 

 

Homes in a sellers’ market sell within 7-14 days and for 10-40% above the asking price. Homes that have been on the market for 30 days or more generally sell for less than their initial asking price.

 

Our guidance to you is based upon how the home compares to nearby homes which have recently sold

It’s up to you to decide how much to offer and what terms and conditions to include.

Graph showing how actual MLS Sales Prices and Automated Valuations from Zillow correlate to a home's square footage
Graph showing how actual MLS Sales Prices and Automated Valuations from Zillow correlate to a home’s square footage

One valuable strategy is to write several offers at different price points, submitting the lowest if you’re the only bidder, and the highest if there are many offers. We’ll discuss that when writing your offer.

How Much Should You Offer?

We respect the fact that it’s your money and your decision how much to offer.

Our research shows you what it takes what the likely sales price range will be based upon sales price based upon list price, current market conditions, and buyer demand.

There’s a very strong correlation between how many buyers make an offer and what a home sells for – as more buyers submit offers, the final sales price increase.

Imagine I’m calling you the day after we present your offer. Two things will likely happen:

The Seller Accepts Or Counters Your Offer

You may feel you paid too much.

Remember – the seller accepted your offer because it was better (usually price, also terms) than anyone else’s offer

The Seller Accepted Some Other Buyers’ Offer

After learning this, if you felt you’d have been willing to offer a higher price, the best thing to do is to offer a higher price to begin with.

Sometimes It’s Best to NOT Make An Offer

We sometimes hear buyers say “It can’t hurt to make an offer”

It can!

If there are multiple offers on a home, and you write an offer near asking price, there’s a very low probability of the seller accepting your offer.

A buyer who really wants the home will know that you’d made an offer, even though they won’t know how much it was for. They’ll knoresulw that more offers result in a higher sales price, so they’ll increase their offer price.

The home sells for more than it otherwise would have, and the next seller lists their home higher than they would have otherwise done.

My Nobel Prizes In Real Estate

Another Berkeley Nobel Prize!

I receive my first Nobel Prize in Real Estate for this discovery:

Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle Of Offers

The act of writing an offer on a home changes the home’s final sales price… even if you’re uncertain as to what the other offers are.

My second Nobel Prize in Real Estate was for:

Quantum Theory Of Offers

After you write an offer, the buyer either gets the house … or doesn’t. There’s no other state.

#Serkes #RealEstate #Buyer #BuyerBroker

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Ira & Carol Serkes
Berkeley Real Estate

Ira & Carol Serkes

(510) 526-6668 Office
(510) 684-3334 Cell
Contact
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"Dear Carol and Ira,I wanted to take a moment to tell you how good it is to have you as my real estate agents with the hope you will share this with others.... full testimonial"
- David Braun, MD
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      1625 Shattuck Avenue #101
      Berkeley, CA 94709

      Ira & Carol Serkes

      Berkeley Real Estate
      (510) 526-6668 Office
      (510) 684-3334 Cell
      DRE# 00936453, 01143916
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