If you have been looking to purchase a home for awhile and you finally find one that you love and you are so excited to make it yours. Your agent contacts the listing agent only to find out that there is another offer coming in on the property. What do you do? To start you need to do you research and find out what the comparable sales are. Compare those sales to this house, evaluate price per square foot, upgrades, and locations. Contact your lender and discuss your options, based on different purchase prices. Make sure you are comfortable and qualified at different price points. Finally ask yourself how much do you want this house? Ask yourself will you be comfortable paying what you offer? Ask yourself will you be okay if you do not get this house? This is where emotions become involved and you can make decisions with without taking everything into account.
Making an offer over the list price is a common practice in most areas. Sometimes people make it out to be a big deal but a lot of times it is not. It just depends on how you view it. For example if a home is listed for $475k and there is multiple offers and you feel $480k might get it. If you are hung up on paying more then the list price, just ask yourself if the sellers had originally listed the home for $480k instead of $475k would I think anything of it. You see a listing agent typically recommends a list price to the seller and a lot of time the seller agrees. The agent recommends a price that will get the house sold in a timely manner while getting the seller the most amount of money. Although fair market value is not what the agent or seller thinks or suggests, it is what a buyer will pay for it! You are the buyer and you most likely are familiar with the market so ask yourself what is this home worth to me? Obviously this home is priced well because another buyer also wants to buy it. Finally ask yourself will I find a comparable home if this one sells to someone else? Every situation is different but do not get hung up with offering above the list price! Just evaluate everything and make a sound decision that you will be comfortable with regardless of the outcome!
