DFW Home Appraisals VA & FHA

Appraisals for DFW home sales include inspections and are more comprehensive than appraisals with conventional financing and they are also more expensive. These appraisers are required to perform certain minimum inspections as well as evaluate the market value of the subject property. These inspections are not as comprehensive or detailed as a professional home inspection report. These “Appraisal Inspections” should not be considered a substitute for a professional home inspection and sometimes additional repairs are needed.
These repair costs are additional costs the seller that the seller would not usually be obligated to pay for a buyer obtaining conventional financing. If you are using FHA or VA Insured financing for your purchase your offer should include a maximum figure to cover these repair cost. If this figure in not included, in essence, the seller is signing the equivalent of a blank check and it could cost them substantially more that they expected. Have your Realtor search the MLS for the rare DFW listings that show that the sellers are open to selling to buyers using FHA and VA insured financing.
The figure that you put your offer will more than likely affect the seller’s willingness to negotiate on terms and on the price of their DFW realty for sale. If you put $750 as a repair estimate, the seller may be $750 less negotiable on their sales price. If no repairs are necessary, you could have been able to get that home for $750 less than what you and the seller originally agreed on for the price. A good solution would be to add a clause to your offer that states that if the required repairs cost less than the maximum amount allowed, the excess will be credited toward buyer’s down payment or closing costs. If you are purchasing a DFW FSBO home then the onus is on you to make sure that your offer is written correctly to handle these details.

Making a Lowball Offer on a DFW Home

Many potential DFW homebuyers thing a good strategy for making their home offer is to make a lowball offer thinking and assuming that they make get lucky and get their offer accepted. They figure the worst case is that the seller will counter their lowball offer, maybe half way, and they will still save a ton of money. This is possible but the chances are slim to none, closer to none. Many times a seller will be offend by the lowball offer and simply reject it. Even if that buyer submits a higher offer, the seller won’t even look at it.

Here are 5 common lowball offer mistakes buyers and their agents routinely make:
Submitting a Lowball Offer Before Calling the Listing Agent First
The listing agent can, in most instances, provide valuable information about the seller and their circumstances that will help you to write the offer in such a manner that the seller will be likely to accept. If your DFW Realtor doesn't call the listing agent first, for all you know, that home might already have a contract pending on it. Also, always call to find out how many offers the agent has received, if any.
Submitting a Lowball Offer With a Low Earnest Deposit
Earnest money deposits generally vary anywhere from 1% to 5% of the sales price. If a buyer submits an offer way below list price and then sends a small earnest money deposit it makes the buyer appears as though they are not serious or committed to buying the property.
Submitting a Lowball Offer With A Letter of their Situation
Most sellers don't want to read a hardship letter from a buyer and don't usually care if a buyer has fallen in love with their home that they can’t afford. Banks are even less forgiving in these types of situations. Explaining to a seller that the buyer doesn't qualify to pay list price sends a signal that the buyer shouldn’t be making an offer on other home in the first place. It makes the buyer appear financially weak and uninformed.
Submitting a Lowball Offer With Non Accurate Comparable Sales
Unless the home is substantially overpriced, the listing agent has already given the seller a comparative market analysis to support the sales price before putting the home on the market. Sending the listing agent a list of sales from another area insults the agent's intelligence and put them on guard that you are unethical. This also shows that the buyer's agent does not know the values in the neighborhood or the surrounding properties The best way to handle this to get your professional DFW Realtor to run recent comparable using the local DFW MLS that could possibly show that prices have in that area. If your Realtor can find a few DFW listings will much lower prices this could help support your lowball offer.
Submitting a Lowball Offer Asking For Concessions
If it's not bad enough to anger the seller with a lowball offer but it makes the situation even worse if the buyer also ask for concessions like help with closing cost on top of an already low offer price. Some sellers are willing to give a cash credit to buyers, but generally they will refuse to do so on a lowball offer. There are better ways to get a low-ball offer accepted than with making these 5 mistakes.