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The Ultimate Playbook: How to Write a Real Estate Offer in 2025 That Sellers Can't Ignore · Connor with Honor: AI, Real Estate and Real Life

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody, looks like we're at the 14th of August 2025.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about real estate.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to give you some numbers, but I'm going to continue my video series where I'm talking about the best ways to purchase real estate.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we've gone through the introductory, should I even be buying a house?
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Question exploring that, exploring some of the benefits, not just from a psychological point of view, but a monetary point of view with interest, the actual interest deduction that's available for most people with regard to their taxes.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: But again, that's something you need to check into.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I went from that in the pre-qualification process, what that looks like, how I would search for a lender if I were, who to trust, who not to trust, and what the different lenders look like.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then moved from that into what are you going to do to make an offer?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: When you do find that special property after you get done searching, I covered that.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Then when you do find the property, what is that next best step for you?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Being somebody that wants to purchase real estate, what kind of investigations and things should you do prior to even putting pen to paper?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And once you start to spend money on purchasing a residence, it becomes a little bit more difficult to pull back.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: So getting all of the information you need up front to make a solid offer is super important.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I covered that yesterday.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then today I want to talk about what it looks like to put together an offer when you're writing it up and what things you might want to consider when doing so.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: In most cases, when you're writing, you find that property, you've gone through everything we've already talked about.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now your next step is to start to put pen to paper and formulate an offer.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll get into that in just a moment.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into the real estate data.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: We have the past seven days of real estate information and what's happening in the local market.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So right now in Santa Clarita Valley, let me pull this up real quick.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: We have eight listings that have been posted coming soon in the past seven days.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: 71 new listings, 104 properties have had their prices changed.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: These are majority reductions, uh, not very many increases.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: We might get five, seven.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: In this particular particular case, we have three price increases.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it looks like the prices, we can look at the historical data within each listing.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Those price changes were as a result or within several moments of them being placed live on the MLS for sale.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So what does that mean?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the agent made a mistake.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: They transposed a couple numbers.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, for those cases, the transposition of numbers happens to equate to the listings now showing a price increase in a market where price increases are difficult to sell.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Can the agent get past this?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: No phone call, no help, no box of donuts or case of whiskey or wine to the board is going to change that as a result.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Putting it in and triple checking those numbers before hitting published is super important, but that keeps people safe, right?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: That keeps the consumer that's looking on an MLS-enabled website, like a local site, selfish plug coming at you, Santa ClaritaOpenhouses.com.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's why that data is so accurate because there's so many rules in place from the originator of that data.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever an agent, licensed agent, puts a listing into the MLS, it has to be verified.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Double checked, triple checked, and then after that verification process, then it gets released to the world.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: But at any part of that process, if there's a mistake or glitch, it cannot be undone because the record has already been made.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Prior to hitting publish, no sweat, change it all day long, no problem.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: They can go back in there.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: We can go back in there and we can actually modify it and uh adjust anything that we want.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: But once it comes time to hit publish, we got to make sure everything's in line.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Have I done this before?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Once, a long time ago.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: I've been doing this since 1998.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what a horrible, painful lesson.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: At that time, the market was going up.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're going up in a real estate market, those types of tactics and strategies might actually work out in the favor, but right now we're not seeing that.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: So this isn't that time to hit the publish button on something that you're gonna have to change into having the price increase, at least for the most part.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: In some cases, it works out brilliantly because people then get really excited.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, the price is going up.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, this must be this must be my lucky day.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe they don't say that, but anyway, okay.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: So then total, 786 total active listings on the market for sale.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into the meat of today's show.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Talking about formulating an offer on the house that you've looked at.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've looked at it, you've done some due diligence, maybe you've even checked in with the HOA.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you have 53 cats, making sure that all those cats will be allowed in the property if it happens to be homeowner controlled.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: If it's not homeowner controlled and you have 53 cats, that might be an issue you're gonna have to take up with a city because that would probably be where whatever enforcement would come to you would generate from, if that is in fact against the rules in that local venue, city, township, wherever you happen to be contemplating buying this residence within.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Looking at what's happening and following through is super important.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So if it is a homeowner-controlled home, you want to make those phone calls if you have certain types of pets, a certain number of pets, or maybe even pets at all, just to make sure they're allowed.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know of any cases where there wouldn't be a pet allowed, but maybe particular breeds of dogs might not be, numbers of dogs, numbers of cats.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: These things I have seen, so they do exist.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to do your due diligence and follow up.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: If your agent says, Don't you worry, I'll take care of it, that's really nice, but I would still do it myself.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Only being, let's say, not your agent trying to screw you over.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: But what happens is they're calling and they call the particular entity, the homeowners association.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: If it happens to be self-managed, you know, they might be able to get through to a person depending.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: If it's not self-managed and managed by a corporation, like we have one out here, Valencia Management, they handle many different properties.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: If it's managed through them, you might be able to get an easier answer because you're probably gonna find somebody manning that front desk at least in nine to five, five days a week.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you might be able to get into somebody's voicemail if they're not actively answering the phone.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then you can also ask the receptionist what's the voicemail number.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, every agent is gonna have access to what the homeowner's association phone number is, and it will be publicized.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not gonna be a hard thing for your agent to give you the number.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: If your agent happens to call, though, because they're trying to do your solid, do you a solid, then they might call and find out that in fact uh they got somebody on their last day.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: These people hate the board, and they're gonna go ahead and fire off a lot of lies and a lot of incorrect answers to the question that your agent asked.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: And of course that can happen to you.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's why in both cases, you always want to definitely follow up with them in an email, making sure you understood the most critical parts of your conversation.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you have three beloved pit bulls and they're the most wonderful creatures in the world, and you want to buy this house, you need to make sure that you understood correctly when they say, absolutely, three pit bulls would be just fine.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: You definitely want to follow up with them in an email and then get them to answer that in the affirmative.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: All these things take time.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if the property is moving super fast, if properties are selling within hours of being placed on the market, like we've seen out here, you might have to adjust your strategy, or if that makes you uncomfortable and you're not sure, you might want to pull back a little bit and rethink of you purchasing a home at that time, whenever the market is moving that quickly.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's good information to be passed along.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do not go out there and get super stressed.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: But also, you need to be somewhat nimble.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: If this happens to be about things and documents and paperwork that you should have had prepared to be able to fire off to continue this process, then you should have already done that.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: But now we're talking about just basically vetting a property and figuring out what how what what type of offer we're going to write.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, your financing is important.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to want to put your best foot forward when it comes to financing.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're using a conventional loan, that's probably going to be best on the standing besides cash.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, the amount of down payment on a conventional loan usually equates to better uh a better financing profile for that particular buyer.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: FHA is also a wonderful loan, but not as much down payments required in certain certain respects.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: There are some conventional loans that can be uh down payments or 3%, so it's even less than FHA if you qualify for that.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: But usually when people are talking conventional loan, they're thinking 20%.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're a seller, make sure you verify what that conventional loan looks like and you'll see it on the sheet.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: But also you should see it in the letter that the buyer supplies, which is the approval letter, about their down payments.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you should have that information.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: But you as a buyer know going in the less money you have down, it could be viewed by the seller as maybe the more risky you happen to be.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I would put your best foot forward when it comes to making an offer on the real estate.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how much do you offer?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you've already done your due diligence, you've looked at every possible thing, at least you can without having a home inspector go into it.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: You've heard from your agent, maybe you brought friends and family in there and they've potentially purchased real estate in the past, so they might know some of the things to look for.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have that uncle that's a contractor, he can come in and have a look at it as well, if it happens to be in that kind of condition.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: But ultimately, you're going to be looking at other properties that are very similar to this one.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to be taking into an 180-day consideration of properties that have sold.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you see other properties on the market that are for sale, but you didn't like as much, that's why you're writing an offer on this particular property.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get slided by their sales prices.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: What they're asking for those.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: What you want to look at is the properties that sold.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's how appraisers do it.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: They might they're not going to give any weight to something somebody wants.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody's hoping for, somebody's wishing for.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to give weight to those particular properties that have completely finished.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: They've been signed off on.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: They're actually closed, and the escrow has finished.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: New homeowners now have those properties.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's what they're going to be looking for.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're looking at real estate from that vantage point, you want to look at those properties that are similar.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you can, same bedroom and same bathroom count.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you can same exact amount of bathrooms, so if it has two and a half, which is very common here in Santa Clarita Valley, you have two full.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Usually the main bedroom has one full.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then maybe a hallway bath upstairs if it's a two-story house has another full.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then the half is typically downstairs for you know not wanting to run upstairs, just having to use the bathroom, or having guests and so on come over.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: So usually the half is a toilet and a sink.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: A three-quarter bathroom is typically going to be sink, toilet, shower, no tub.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then a full bathroom is going to have maybe a tub shower combination.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: It could have a separate tub shower, but then also a toilet and a sink.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it could have more than one sink, but it's still counted as a full bathroom.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can align that in your search, finding those closed properties within the past 180 days that match up in that way, great.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Square footage, it's not uncommon to find another property out here with the exact same square footage because Santa Clarita has a lot of tracks, different tracks and neighborhoods.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: So you have Dear Horton that built these 300 homes, you have uh Lenar that built these 300 homes, Hovinian that built these 300 homes, Toll Brothers, so on and so forth.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: So they have maybe three or five models in each one of those developments.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And out of those models, there could have been at least three.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of the magic number, three or better, three properties that sold in the past 180 days that are exactly like the one you're buying.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now you also have to take into account the market.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: If the market in the last three months, if you're looking at comps and you have stuff that's been over a close to 180 days closed, and now you're writing an offer on this property, you're gonna have to look at the market trend.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Are we going up as a real estate market or are prices coming down?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: That should be indicated on the comps, maybe not those specific ones related to the property, but other comparables that are gonna be through your process of looking for other real estate that matches up.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: After you do this just for a moment or plug it into your favorite large language model in a neighborhood near you, they should be able to pull out, you'll you'll start to extract the trends of the market, and then you make your offer accordingly.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: If, in some cases, if a seller's asking for more than their property is worth, then you step back and if the market's going up hand over fist, month over month, you might have a high competition rate for that property.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: You might have other people that are wanting to buy it as well.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, this, what you're doing, takes time.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I never say go into anything half cocked or just run in, eyes closed, scream into the top of your lungs.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: You should take this at the pace that is most comfortable for you.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Your agent should be doing some of this work, they should be making suggestions.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in the best case scenario, like I do for my buyers, I will have put together a complete package with an offering strategy and present that to them very, very quickly.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, potentially by the time they sit down to dinner on the day of the showings.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: We go out, we look at properties, they tell me the one or ones that they've liked the best, and then I can put together these offering strategies rather quickly.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: If I am going to be part of the strategy, if we're going to offer less than what the seller wants, then I want that justified.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: I just don't want to throw out a low offer because you know I think I'm better than everybody else, or because my buyers are asking.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: It should be backed up.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if there's nothing to back it up and the buyers are just being cheeky and they want to come in lower than the seller's offering trying to get a deal, no problem.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Buyers need to learn the best way.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, maybe it would work.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Most cases it won't, depending on the market, but in some cases it will.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm no one to tell my buyer what to do unless it's something, I'll change that tactic unless it's something that's going to be able to create a problem for them.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Them not getting a house after I explained, well, if we go in at this level, it's only been on the market a day.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's probably a high uh showing rate on this property.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, while we were even waiting for it, there were three people waiting behind us.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Coming in with a lower-than-asking price offer, if that's what you want to do, great.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't seem that the comparables support that kind of strategy.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: But you're the boss, I will do it.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: They're not putting themselves into harm's way by making a lower-than-asking price offer.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if we do this more than once or twice or three times, no skin off my back, but eventually they'll start to understand more of the market and what sellers will take.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe it's going to indicate to them, well, if I can't get something for less than asking price, I'm not going to buy real estate.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then that's your choice.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: But this is something that, you know, an agent looks at as an objection.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's not an objection.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's somebody who wanted to buy a property and get a good deal on it.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's all that is.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually, if you show them the numbers, show them the comparables, and then leave it up to them, you know, it'll work out.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: It always has.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Since 1998, it's worked out.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Buyers haven't lost in any of the cases that I've been representing them with.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: It just works.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: But when you go in with having a fully prepared package that you and your clients put together, you yourself as the agent, and then being able to present that to the seller, if in fact we're coming under, then that's very valuable to them because maybe they didn't know.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe their agent didn't have the intestinal fortitude to explain it to them.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they were just too hungry to get the listing.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then the sellers understand it.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Typically, there's adjustments to be had.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if the properties on the other end of the spectrum are going to go higher than the actual asking price, that's another, that's another strategy.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, sometimes in some markets, when properties are starting to go up and there's a lot of market activity, we now have to decide after we look at the comps, we see that the values at listing price.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Is the value going to be above listing price?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you look at those same comps to determine that, and then you take into uh the way the market is moving and the way property prices are going out.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you can see this in the comparable search you'll do.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: You'll see what the listing price of sold properties were and then what the sales price happened to be.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And in some cases, you'll start to see trends where those sales prices were higher than the listing prices.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: That being the case, then maybe your offer should be made accordingly with that.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you should go above.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: What you want to do is when you make your offer, if there's high competition on a property, you want to be one of the ones that's at least countered.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: You because they don't have to counter everyone.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you go in with something below the asking price and the sellers receive five other offers above asking price, in that case, more than likely, you might not even get the counter.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: But you could get a counter because the other agents like me usually counter everyone with a highest and best scenario.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: You might see this.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to ask you for your highest offer, the highest offer you're willing to go, that that particular level, and best regard is regarding financing and other terms.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Other terms could be maybe you're going to shorten your time frames to do inspections.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Some sellers like that because they understand that once you go in there and you have your home inspector and you get that appraisal done and all these sorts of things, then you have a compressed time to do that.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then if in fact you see something that you can't handle, don't want, or decide that it's going to be a problem for you and you will not move on, then of course you'll be notified, or they'll be notified within a much shorter time frame versus what's typically allowed in a California contract of 17 days for the inspections.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: So if you whittle that down to 10 or 7, in some cases that works out fine.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a benefit for a seller when they're reviewing offers, saying, well, wow, this guy, this guy's really serious.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: He wants to compress all of his time frames in a shorter amount of time.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Only do so if that's not going to create an issue where you're giving up your right to do something.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's very important.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: We had a market not too far, not too long ago, where we had people just completely giving up all of their rights to purchase real estate.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: They basically wrote offers and stated, if you accept our offer and I decide to cancel an hour after you accept it, I'm willing to forfeit my 3% deposit on your million-dollar pad, which is 30 grand.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't care about inspections, appraisals, I don't care about any of that.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to buy your house.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: We had buyers that were negotiating at that level buying real estate.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: And over time, uh after those closings, as months went on, there was some buyer regret in that world because they were paying way too much for properties, and then they were also going much higher than the seller was asking, much higher than appraised the appraisers would actually go.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then they also negotiated that they're willing to offer the difference between the appraised value and what the seller is in cash.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, if the appraisal came in lower, they would match that original offering price by waiving their appraisal contingency and even writing a contract that I will pay the difference.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is big game ball here.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be careful.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: But these are part of the things to consider.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Also, maybe giving the sellers a couple days after escrow closes to move out.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: That can also help because it shows due diligence.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: So compressing those time frames, making your offer the best it can be, backing up your offer with comparables, then also looking at the market and making a decision as to you know if you're going to go higher, what that's going to look like.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then also, you know, understanding that you've already done your at least pre-purchase inspections to the best of your ability, and maybe even writing something up to that nature.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, love letters aren't allowed, but if you're able to have your agent convey to the seller's agent that you did your due diligence looking at the property, even bringing in one of your own relatives that happens to be an expert in some field that would relate to qualifying the home for purchase, that might not be bad because it gives you maybe an added edge.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: If everything else is the same across the board, maybe you just having the wherewithal to prepare yourself to purchase this particular house to even make the offer in the first place shows a lot of credit on your behalf to the seller.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something to also consider.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: So this is where you formulate your offer.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever you do put an offer into properties, you'll find that the deposits are typically, at least in this market, 3%.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't long ago when they were four or five grand, no matter really what the purchase price was.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: But now that's changed to being pretty much 3% solid.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you happen to be a VA buyer and coming in with nothing down, and you're expecting your closing costs to be picked up by other parties, that's something that's going to have to be negotiated going in as well.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because you might not have 3% of a$800,000 house because you just might not have it.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the these are questions and concerns that will come up when you're talking to your lender when it comes to getting a loan.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Also, your agent should have a lot of information on this.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, that's kind of how you get to into that world of formulating and writing the offer.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And agents themselves will know that with that offer, they're going to have everything they're going to need.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: They should have a very strong pre-approval letter for you or a direct underwriter approval letter or DU.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's very, very strong.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: If they have that, going in with the offer.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: In addition, after the offer is submitted to the agent, it's incredibly important with a proof of funds, with the lending letter, and then maybe with a letter from the buyer, not something, you know, we're so-and-so, we're this, but just basically stating they did their due diligence to look at the pricing of the residence.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: They feel very comfortable, they did their neighborhood investigations, they checked in with local law enforcement.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a lot of things might make the seller think, wow, these people actually did a lot more work than anybody else, or at least everybody else that made the offers, what weren't saying anything about what they happen to do.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then after that, what's critically it's super important is if you're financing this deal, to have a follow-up call by your real estate lender to the agent representing the seller.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's huge and it's so rarely done, it's ridiculous.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: That is meaningful because now the seller's agent can go back to the seller and say, you know, with this offer that was submitted, we had their lender call me directly and give me, you know, course and scope, give me the Riot Act, give me gospel verse, chapter, and verse all about these people and their qualifications to be able to purchase your residence.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And as far as the lender said, they are good as gold.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: That goes a long way versus other agents, not I don't know if they don't have the time or the skill or the expertise, but this is something that the agent would typically do.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, listen, would you call the particular listing agent?
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is their phone number for our clients that wrote the offer.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: They're the ones that you wrote the pre-approval letter for.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Would you please call up and follow up with this agent?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Also email them and CC me on the email as well, but at least call them and talk to them and keep calling until you get them on the phone.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: And eight uh lenders will do this all day long and it will help clients.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's the great, that's the uh that's the update for this great, beautiful day of the 14th of August, 2025.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Gave you some real estate numbers in the beginning.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow we'll talk about what happens after the offer is submitted, after that lender calls.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: What does that time frame look like?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where uh a lot of people seem to get irritated in the real estate process because things aren't moving as quickly as they would like.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, we'll talk about that tomorrow.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get into some time frame stuff.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm Connor with Honor.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for watching.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: SantaClarita, openhouses.com, is where everything lives.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can check out all the open houses, of course.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that's for sale is there as well.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: And this daily video will be posted front and center on the homepage as as I uh when I get them done every single day.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, we'll talk to you soon.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Connor with Honor.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Over and out.