You’ve made an offer on a property you absolutely love. The seller has made his best counter offer. Should you accept or should you walk?
It depends. To make a decision you won’t regret, you must have proper information.
In this case, you need to know the price homes similar to the one you want to buy have sold for in the past three to six months. Frankly, if you don’t have this essential piece of knowledge, you had no business making an offer on the property in the first place.
If you don’t know what similar properties are selling for, how do you know if the seller’s asking price is too high, right in line with the market or a great bargain? You don’t. So you believe you’ve scored a real deal by landing the house of your dreams for 5% below the asking price…except that it was priced 16% over the recent selling prices of similar homes. Or you may feel justified walking away from an otherwise perfect property because the owners wouldn’t budge on their asking price…until you discover you can’t find another home like it without spending $20,000 more.
Always make certain you (if you’re buying a home on your own) or your agent have done adequate research before making an offer . Knowing market values gives you 1. Leverage to get the seller to lower the unrealistic price of your dream house ; 2. The confidence to move swiftly and scoop up a bargain priced property before another buyer does.