3. Make an Offer

  • I can prepare a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of a prospective home. This will tell you, based upon other nearby and/or similar properties sale prices, what I think the house you're considering is worth. Once you decide to make an offer on a home, this is how it works . . .
  • While I prepare a contract and assorted documents for your signature, you must contact your loan originator and tell him or her to email me a Lender Letter, with the purchase price you are offering stated in the letter. Yes, you can ask them to prepare more than one letter with varying prices.
  • Write a check to Real Estate Brokers of Alaska for the amount of the earnest money. This check will be cashed and placed into a non-interest-bearing trust account. If the offer is accepted, the earnest money goes toward your costs in the transaction. If the offer is not accepted, your money remains in the trust account and can be applied to another offer or you may have it back. The procedures for getting it back may take several days. Earnest money is your promise to comply with the terms of an agreed contract. If you do not comply, then the seller may keep the earnest money. If the seller does not comply, then you should get the earnest money returned to you. The broker in charge at Real Estate Brokers of Alaska decides which party gets the earnest money in the case of non-compliance.
  • Sign the contract (Purchase & Sale Agreement). Some of the things listed in it are the purchase price, lender, loan type, title company, inspectors, inspection dates, appraisal date, recording date. We specify a deadline for the seller to respond. The Purchase & Sale Agreement is the alpha and the omega of the transaction. We will refer to it often.
  • You will also need to sign various disclosures related to the property, zoning, lead-based paint, and the brokers.
  • I take all these documents, make copies, and convey them to the seller's real estate licensee. Then, we wait.
  • A note about how I get paid . . . the seller pays, not the buyer. A real estate licensee (the listing licensee) creates a contract with the seller to sell the property. The listing licensee advertises the property, offering to pay a portion of the commission to any other licensee who brings a buyer into the transaction. In this way, the listing licensee and buyer's licensee split the total commission. I am an independent contractor and the commission is my income. I am not paid until the transaction records. I am responsible to pay my broker, my taxes, advertising, all of it, from the commission. So you can see that showing houses and making offers is not a bother, that is how I make my living. Use me!
  • A note about For Sale By Owners (FSBO) . . . yes, I am willing to work with sellers who do not have a real estate licensee's representation, but the seller must be willing to pay my commission. I'm happy to ask them.