Put my first offer in on a great prop and... I didn't get it, How can I strengthen my future offers?

[Kevin Beres]

Hello,

Last week I put an offer in on a duplex in Richmond, VA. The numbers looked great, I was planning on utilizes the rent hack method at the place and it was close to my job. I put an offer in that I thought was fair and then started dreaming big for what I thought was going to be the beginning of my buy & hold investment portfolio. Well, they went with another offer. I didn't realize how angry it would make me to lose out on such a good deal! I would like some advice on how to make sure future offers get accepted

This property was a homepath house and I had I put in offer in within 3 days of it going on the market. Side note (They don't look at any offers until after 3 days & don't consider investors until after 20). 

-They were asking $95,000, I offered $91,500
-Asked for 1 point on loan
-$500 earnest money
-Preapproval letter w/ 5% down

In the future, what can I do to increase my chances of getting an offer accepted?

Thanks

[Joel Owens]

The property still might fall out of contract so follow up.

Sometimes a strategy you have to use in situations like that is go in with a higher price and get it accepted. Then when the seller is invested in the deal use inspections or something else to hammer the down on price after the fact.

In a strong sellers market you have to employ this sometimes. If you justify all these reasons to take the lower offer they will not want to hear that initially when looking at higher offers.