Winning Bidding War – Arlington Real Estate

5 Strategies to Win
a Bidding War!

Earnest Money Deposit

1

You can make your offer look stronger when competing with other offers by increasing the amount you put in for your Earnest Money Deposit. This is a check held by your Title Company that attaches you to the offer contract. If you are willing to put more money on the table with your initial offer than bigger the loss if you walk away from the contract so the less likely you are to walk away from the contract.

Down Payment

2

Increasing the Down Payment shows the seller you are a strong buyer with money to back your offer up. If you are putting up more money, than you are less likely to face any problems when it comes to financing the home.

Home Inspection

3

A) You can make your offer stronger by shortening the Home Inspection period in the contract. The quicker the inspection the quicker any negotiations and the less stress for the seller.

B) You can also make the Home Inspection for informational purposes only, stating that your decision to buy the home is not dependent on anything you find during the Home Inspection. If something is broken or in bad shape you will take it as-is.

Appraisal

4

This method works if you have cash in reserves that you are willing to spend. In the case of the home appraising for less than your offer price, the lender will only lend you the money for the home based on the appraised value not the offer price. So if the appraisal comes in lower than the offer price the move is-you state that you are willing to come up with the difference out of pocket. This is a strong method in multiple offer situations as the more offers a house gets the higher the offer price, but that doesn’t mean the appraised value is going to go up as well. So a seller is going to be looking for someone who is prepared for that situation.

Talk

5

This method should be used in every transaction but is often over-looked, talk to the listing agent and find out what the seller is looking for. Some sellers need to move in a hurry and a quick closing would be very attractive to them. Others might not be ready to move so soon and need a rent-back, in this situation the seller would occupy the home for an agreed upon time after settlement while paying you rent for that time period. If you know what they are looking for before writing the contract you can make your offer stand out and look the strongest!

What clients are saying.

Throughout the process Paco made it a point to communicate with us and ensure we understood every step we were going through. Paco did a great job negotiating with the sellers and helped us get the price we wanted as well as the repairs and services. We are very grateful and love our new home. We would highly recommend Paco to anyone looking to purchase a home in the DMV/Northern Virginia area.

Andrew & Kristin M.

My wife and I used Paco as our realtor to help us purchase a new home in Arlington. We found Paco to be knowledgeable about real estate, and specifically the DC Metro area market. We were promised a 5 star performance and feel we received it. Paco met with us to gain our preferences, and immediately began executing our plan. Moving is generally a stressful time, and so we were very pleased that Paco has a team of experts at his disposal.

Chris & Jennie T.

When it came time to sell our townhouse, we had a number of options available when it came to choosing our realtor. This was our first time selling a home and we wanted to be sure we chose a realtor who would help keep us properly informed throughout the entire process. Paco guided us through each and every step, explaining terminology and ensuring we felt adequately informed and prepared to make the best decisions.