Making an Offer

This is not enough space to cover all the possible scenarios when making an offer. Your agents experience and knowledge will help you decide many of the important decisions at hand in this part of the process.

Real estate contracts must be in writing. Offers are legal documents which are executable and will hold up to scrutiny in a court of law. Although your agent will be able to explain the intent of the wording and your responsibilities under the contract, they are not attorneys and their advice cannot be considered legal in most places including Washington State.

Contracts are written on approved legal forms provided by the NWMLS. In some cases additional forms may be included specific to your agents company. These contracts detail specific information about the property (ie: legal description, address, tax id #, owner name, and details about you and your finances). You will be asked to arrive at an offer price and to detail a time limit in which this offer will expire, if no action is taken by the seller.

One of the items to be detailed is the earnest money. Earnest money is money the buyer puts up front to show his/her seriousness in making an offer. In the Washington real estate market, this is usually 3% on the offer price but may be any amount you feel comfortable in presenting. This money is cashed and then held in trust by the broker in a special account and forwarded to the closing agent right before close. There are specific remedies for default on a real estate contract and in many cases the remedies may include forfeiture of the earnest money. Thus, it is imperative you know your rights and obligations before submitting your offer.

Once an offer is written and signed by you and your agent, the agent will contact the listing agent or broker and either fax, or submit the offer directly to them. In some cases, properties will have multiple offers and the listing agent will have certain guidelines for submission and review. Your agent will advise you if this is the case.

Once an offer is submitted and received certain time constraints will come into play. Time limits will exist for the seller to provide you with a response to your offer. The response may come in several ways. One the seller may simply accept your offer as written and the transaction will proceed to the next steps and to escrow. The seller may counter your offer and come back to you with a different price for you to consider or different circumstance concerning your offer (ie: closing date, amount of earnest money, or some other item in the original offer). New time limits will then apply and it will be in your court to decide to accept these conditions or not. If you do accept the new terms, you will then proceed forward to close. You may also counter the counter from the seller until mutual agreement is made or no agreement is reached and the offer is allowed to expire.

Once you have agreed and have mutual acceptance, the next steps are time sensitive and driven by the terms of the contract.