Orlando First Time Home Buyers this is your guide to everything real estate related and where to begin. The firs parts of this series discussed if purchasing a home is right for you and how to finance your first home, the second part discussed why you need an Orlando Buyer's Agent. This part will discuss how to make an offer on your first home.

Lets retrace our steps, you've come to the conclusion buying is right for you and you have spoken with a lender who has given you a pre-approval letter, you have also chosen your buyer's agent to represent your best interests in a transaction, we have found that perfect house and now it's time to make an offer on that house and hopefully turn it into a home. But what can you do to make your offer stand out.

Your agent will now sit down with you and go over what are known as comps or comparable properties that have recently sold in usually a 1 mile radius around the home for most homes in Central Florida and within the past 3 months. These houses will be as similar to the house you want to purchase as possible. However we all know that generally isnt possible so your agent will make some adjustments to the pricing to make the homes more exact. From here they will arrive at a range value of what the house you want to purchase should appraise for and will discuss with you making the offer. An offer isnt just about price, it's about the terms and conditions as well.

Depending on the type of property you are looking at bank owned, new construction or owner occupied will dictate how you structure the offer. Bank owned homes you will always have to write the offer AS-IS with the right to inspect, the bank is looking for a deal that nets them the most amount of money with the least amount of risk. Next new construction you will always use the builders contracts, here you will be allowed to do a final walk thru prior to taking possession of the home to find any of those nicks, dings or items that might not work and they will fix them. The builder is looking for price and bottom line net to them. They will throw in extra's like appliances, design center options and closing cost incentives but you might pay more of a premium. There is usually some wiggle room when negotiating with builders but not much. Owner occupied properties have emotion involved you have a seller that might have raised their kids in this home or built it with their bare hands, they put a price tag on that emotional attachment even though an appraiser wont. Here we have flexibility with negotiating terms, pricing and having the seller make repairs to the property, however to make your offer stronger in this market consider doing an AS-IS contract. Here's it's important to play up how much love you will give this home and appreciate it the way they did, play to their senses while trying to get the best deal on it.

Once a successful contract has been negotiated the process of buying a home really begins, you will generally have a week to do your home inspections, from there we quickly move into making sure the home will appraise. The lender will become very involved with you at this step gathering all the final documents and sending this information to underwriting to get a final approval on the loan and get you to closing.

By now you should have a better understanding about how to purchase your first home, some of the key players and steps to getting you to your ultimate goal, owning your first home. In the next blog, I will discuss things that can go wrong while your under contract.

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