How to Save Money With Your Sales Agreement Iowa City IA

Steps

1. Make your Earnest Money Deposit as large as possible. This is the amount of money you're depositing in your broker's EMD account, not your mortgage loan down payment. It is a sum of money, or other valuable consideration, that you submit along with your offer to demonstrate that you are in earnest. Sellers appreciate sizable deposits. This deposit will be credited to you on the closing statement. It goes towards the agreed-upon purchase price. It certainly is not lost and gone forever once you submit it. Your EMD can be used as a valuable tool in making the seller comfortable and happy - a happy seller is a lot more likely to accept some or all of your other clauses & contingencies than an unhappy, going along grudgingly, seller will be.
2. Make your total offer close to if not right at full list price. This, too, makes the seller very happy. Of course, you are not actually going to pay full price, or anything close to it.
3. Amend the contract so that the house is to your liking. For example, if you really do not like the carpeting, put a clause in your offer that the seller shall pay buyer a, say, $2500 new carpet allowance at closing. Or, if you feel the yard needs landscaping, have the seller pay you $2000 landscaping allowance. Perhaps you'll plant some trees and bushes, etc, this year. Or maybe next year, or the next. But in the meantime, you have that sum of money in your own account. These are just examples - use the idea of the seller paying you money, not doing the improvement himself, put cash into your pocket.
4. Have a clause in your offer that the seller shall pay all or part of the closing costs. Be sure to list what these costs are. A good list can be found at my website (address below.)
5. Have a home inspection performed. This shall be paid for by you, but any needed repairs that this inspection discovers shall be paid for by the seller. Make the seller only responsible for, say, $1500 of repairs - if the structure or mechanical systems need more extensive repair than that, you probably don't want the home. More and more repair expenses are sure to follow.
6. Make sure all of your contingencies, including the one which states that you will arrange for suitable financing, contain the clause that your EMD shall be returned to you in full with interest if the contingency cannot be satisfactorily removed by the appointed date.

Sources and Citations

• http://www.first-time-home-buying.net

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