Home Buying Tips

Contract Negotiation

When we find a home that you would like to purchase, we will prepare a Contract to Buy & Sell Real Estate. This is a Colorado-specific and standard legally-binding contract. All Colorado real estate agents use the same standard contract although it might be branded with the brokers company name and logo. (One exception is if the agent also happens to be a lawyer or has a lawyer that creates different than standard contracts. New home builders typically uses there own contracts prepared by their own lawyers.)

There are many negotiated items in the contract for such as:

• You offer price



• The dates for inspection, loan commitment, closing, possession, acceptance, etc.



• You financial ability / strength



• Who pays for various fees like the cost of appraisal, transfer fees, closing fees, etc.



• Additional provisions that could change the complexion of the entire offer

Unless you are familiar with this contract, you are going to need an experienced Realtor and/or a lawyer to write the offer on your behalf. This is the starting point for the negotiation and you want to make attractive to the seller, but still make it as much to your advantage as possible.

The offer can be accepted as presented, rejected, ignored, or countered with terms that are acceptable to the seller. The ultimate decision will be yours to make but it helps to have someone who deals with these contracts all of the time at your side. Contact me to learn more about contract negotiation strategies.

It is important to understand that you typically need to provide earnest money in the form of a personal check at the time an offer is submitted. The amount usually depends on the price of the property you want to buy and it's usually around 1 to 5 percent of the asking price. Providing more or less than the requested earnest money deposit can also affect your negotiating power.

Step 6: Inspection Procedures...