The homebuying journey · Step 3 of 6
Make an offer
An offer is a price plus a bundle of promises, protections, deadlines, and ways to lose money. Understand the whole package before trying to make it look irresistible.
What you’re figuring out
The decisions in this stage
- What the home is worth to you
- Which protections belong in the contract
- How to compete without creating a financial trap
Start here
Three useful first reads
WTF Is the Asking Price, Actually? How to Read the Market Before You Bid
Short answer: the asking price is a number the seller's agent picked, not a law of physics. Whether you should come in under it, match it, or blow past it depends entirely on what's happe…
WTF Is a Contingency, Anyway? The Escape Hatches Built Into Every Offer
Short answer, right up front: the contingencies that matter in almost every offer are the inspection contingency, the appraisal contingency, and the financing (loan) contingency — plus, s…
The Earnest Money Trapdoor: How Buyers Actually Torch Their Deposit
Short version: you lose your earnest money when you miss a deadline, waive the protection that would've covered your reason for backing out, or walk away for a reason the contract doesn't…
The full stage
All 15 guides
Trust, but Verify: How to Check Your Agent's Offer Advice
Short answer: good offer advice comes with evidence. Your agent should be able to explain a recommended price using comparable sales, the pace of the local market, the home's condition, l…
WTF Is a Rent-Back Agreement, and Should You Ever Say Yes?
You close on the house. You have the keys, the mortgage, the whole legally-binding adult-person burden of homeownership. And the seller is... still living there.
Seller Concessions: How to Get Help With Closing Costs
A seller concession is money the seller agrees to put toward your closing costs, paid out as a credit at the closing table — it is not a discount on the home's price. The sale price stays…
WTF Is an Appraisal Gap Clause? How to Pick a Cap You Can Actually Survive
Short version: an appraisal gap clause is a line in your purchase offer where you promise, in writing, to personally cover some or all of the difference if the home appraises for less tha…
WTF Do You Do When Every House You Want Sells for Cash?
Short answer: you can't out-cash cash, and you shouldn't pretend otherwise. A financed offer genuinely is riskier to a seller than an all-cash offer — that's not agent fear-mongering, it'…
WTF Does 'Motivated Seller' Even Mean? Reading Days on Market Like a Tell
Every listing has two pieces of information hiding in plain sight: how long the home has sat on the market, and whatever story you've been told about why the seller is leaving. Neither on…
The Bidding War Survival Guide: How to Not Lose Your Mind (or Your Budget)
Short answer, right up front: you don't out-bid a bidding war, you out-discipline it. The buyers who overpay in multiple-offer situations almost never lose because they didn't know the ta…
An Escalation Clause Isn't a Blank Check — Here's How Not to Write One
An escalation clause is a line in your offer that says: if another buyer bids higher, my offer automatically goes up too, by a set amount, up to a limit I choose — you (the seller) don't…
WTF Makes a Price 'Fair'? How to Build an Offer Number From Real Comps
"Fair" is doing a lot of work in that phrase. A fair offer price isn't a vibe, and it isn't whatever number makes you feel like you didn't get ripped off — it's a specific dollar figure b…
WTF Is the Asking Price, Actually? How to Read the Market Before You Bid
Short answer: the asking price is a number the seller's agent picked, not a law of physics. Whether you should come in under it, match it, or blow past it depends entirely on what's happe…
WTF Happens If a Seller Just… Doesn't Answer Your Offer?
Short answer, right up front: there is no law that says a seller has to respond to your offer in any amount of time. Not 24 hours, not 72, not a week. The only deadline that exists is wha…
The Earnest Money Trapdoor: How Buyers Actually Torch Their Deposit
Short version: you lose your earnest money when you miss a deadline, waive the protection that would've covered your reason for backing out, or walk away for a reason the contract doesn't…
WTF Happens to the Fridge? What Actually Stays When You Buy a House
Short answer: no, not automatically, and the fridge you fell in love with at the showing might be riding off into the sunset with the sellers. Whether an appliance stays with the house co…
WTF Is a 'Normal' Earnest Money Check, Anyway? The Real Ranges by Market
Short answer: most buyers put down 1% to 3% of the purchase price as earnest money, and in hot, low-inventory markets that can climb toward 3-5% or more to make an offer competitive (Rock…
WTF Is a Contingency, Anyway? The Escape Hatches Built Into Every Offer
Short answer, right up front: the contingencies that matter in almost every offer are the inspection contingency, the appraisal contingency, and the financing (loan) contingency — plus, s…