Buying first property for sale by owner. Need help

[Chris E.]

So were selling our first live-in flip in 2 weeks, I've found another property to buy that is for sale by owner. I made the seller an offer and he has accepted, whats next? I'd like to get a purchase/sale agreement to him asap to lock the deal down because I don't want to give them enough time to tell anyone they are selling it and receive a higher offer on it. How can I go about doing this? Should I just contact an agent and ask them to write an offer for me? or would it be better to find a real estate attorney or just call a title company? about How much would I expect to pay for this?

[Landon Hayes]

Hey Chris, sounds like exciting times for you right now 👍, so congratulations.

There's a couple different ways you can approach this.....but I can tell you what I would do in your situation.

I would draw up my own purchase agreement and get the seller and yourself to sign it at the same time in person if possible. If you ask an agent to do this for you they are going to want compensation of some sort as a buyers agent. If you would like some guidance on exactly what needs to be in the purchase agreement I can provide that as well.

As soon as that is executed though, you will have the exclusive right to purchase the property as long as you follow through on the terms of the contract. You just need to make sure that the purchase agreement that you use has all the necessary information, clauses, disclosures, contingencies, etc required by your state.

It sounds like you would at least want to include a home sale contingency fee which means that the agreement would only be valid in the event that you were able to sell your current home that you're about to put on the market. You also always want to include a home inspection contingency so that you minimize risk associated with unknowns that could come up and back out of the deal if anything huge comes back in the report.

It would probably be best for you to arrange for the title company upfront and pay a couple hours to a real estate attorney to make sure you've covered all your bases - probably cost you around $500 or so.

As long as your purchase agreement is solid though you should be good to go without having to pay an agent to simply submit an offer you've already verbally gotten acceptance on. This will at least accomplish your main goal of locking the house down and avoiding someone else from swooping in and taking your deal.

Best of luck! I hope everything goes smoothly with the sale of your first fix n flip!

If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask - this community has got you covered 😎