5 Questions to Ask Before Making an Offer on a Home

I love to start my articles with perspective. Today’s perspective comes from my own personal experience, both as a Realtor and a previous home buyer.

When I bought my first home at age 32, I had already been a real estate agent for six years.

I found the house on an MLS site, stared at the photos for probably an hour, and showed my spouse. The house checked a lot of boxes for both of us, and we agreed to tour it during its Open House the next day, a Saturday.

I remember the home exciting us both, confirming in person exactly how we felt when we saw the photos online. And despite thinking we weren’t going to start looking for a home until the following year, we made an on-the-spot decision: we were going to put in an offer as soon as the Open House ended.

Our offer was accepted almost exactly two hours later, and we were over the moon.

The owner was an older woman who had lost her husband to COVID, so I did as much as I could to accommodate her needs in the offer. I couldn’t have done that without the conversation I had with her agent, who was also her granddaughter.

Before writing the offer, I wanted to know:

1. What is the condition of the home?

2. What has been easy, and what has been difficult, about maintaining it?

3. What changes or improvements were made while the owners lived there?

4. Why is the owner selling?

Those were four of the most important questions I wanted answered before writing the offer.

The answers helped me think through what inspections and due diligence I wanted to pursue if our offer was accepted. They also gave me an idea of what my ownership and upgrade costs might look like based on routine maintenance, deferred maintenance, and the age of the home’s core systems.

But there was one more question.

After the Open House ended, I called the listing agent and asked:

5. “What closing timeframe would be most comfortable for the owner?”

I remember hearing a small sigh of relief from the agent.

I could tell immediately that this was probably one of the most important aspects of the offer terms for the seller.

She needed more time than the usual 30 days. She needed time to pack up her knick-knacks, get help from her church selling some of her things, and get settled at her next destination.

So we gave her that time.

There are a lot of questions you can ask before making an offer on a home. These five mattered in mine because the answers helped me understand more than what I was buying.

They helped me understand the house I might own, the responsibilities that might come with it, and the person on the other side of the transaction. And sometimes, that last piece of information can make all the difference when deciding what kind of offer to write.

What questions did you ask when making an offer on your first home?

If you were selling your home this year, what would be your most important contract terms?

I’d love to hear from you!

Jeanette Thetford, The Thinking Agent