How to act on the competitive market

Competitve market (for buyers) is not so often seen as before, but anyway, if there is some wonderful house, no matter what's the overall market situation, you can bet everybody will go after this one. I have been in business for more than 25 years and especially the luxury homes market in Toronto remembers some very interesting deals. So what to do in order to win the offer?

The very first step: Get pre-qualified

It's simple - if you don't get prequalified, you will end up in much worse position as compared to someone who has proper financing in place. The house owner has to be sure that you are able to pay for the house - when your financing is not clear, all the other advice will not help. I don't have to remind you it's a good advice especially today, when banks are much more careful with mortgages.

What does he want?

It's highly probable the actual owner has spent a lot of effort tto make his home perfect. And he wants his reward! Knowing what or who the seller is looking for is crucial, because you don’t want to waste your time with a seller that has terms which you cannot meet. It is therefore advised to find out all the conditions accompanying the sale of a property you want to bid on. If the details are not acceptable for you, it is advised to try another offer instead. On the other hand, if you are willing to meet them, have your agent to prepare a summary that will accompany your offer. This summary gives the vendor some knowledge about you and focuses on your proposal's pluses.

Right price is the core

If you were the owner, of course you would be insulted if someone offered a too low price for your property, and then probably you would choose another applicant. So you want to be cautious about this. Once you damage your reputation, it is not improved even after offering a higher offer later. Instead shoot about $1,800 to $4,800 higher over the highest expected bid. Imagine that you guess that the top bid would be around $470,000. Try adding some money and come to $473,164 - the offered price doesn't have to be an even number! Price dealing is a very edlicate process and you have to be careful, on the other hand you have to be prepared to talk about exact numbers. Too much of hesitating can damage your reputation.

Down payment - show you are serious

A nice large down payment of 10% to 20% always makes a good impression. Of course in most cases you can try to settle the final amount of your down payment with the seller after the contract has been secured and usually with a success outcome. The crucial point is that you actually pay the deposit after you sign the contract, otherwise you wouldn't seem to be a respectable client.

Good faith deposit

This is a really useful tip, however strong it may look. Put as much of your down payment into your good faith deposit as you can (you loose this deposit if you brake the contract). It doesn't matter to you anyway, because the earnest money deposit is the ground of the down payment in any case, but for the owner it means a lot. That way the seller knows you are for real. Since the down payment is easily renegotiable after the deal has been closed, the good faith deposit is what really shows how much you want that property.

Try to propose a short rent-free stay

In the summary accompanying your offer, propose a free-post occupancy agreement to the seller in case they need a some time in the property after it's been sold to settle their affairs. Normally you would negotiate rent, but giving the option of free occupancy for a short period of time might be the detail that decide whether the seller will go for your offer or not.

And don't be too upset if you can't afford what you want. There are many ways how to change ordinary house into castle. Here is some inspiration how to make your property more "dreamy"

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