First Time Offer

[Damien Pagano]

Hey Guys,

I've never put an offer in on a house, and a bank owned property I've been looking at just came back on the market in my neighborhood.  The house needs a lot of work, but I think (I'm pretty sure) that I can buy the property ($35k) and do the renovations ($30k) for around what the current assessment is at right now.  Comp's in the area are into the 110's and 120's, and I've done my analysis using the calculators on this site for both the fix and flip as well as the rental.  What I'm getting at is that I think this is a good deal.

I've never put an offer in on a house, so I'm looking for some advice on how to put the house under contract as soon as possible but safeguard myself incase there's mold everywhere or broken pipes, etc.  I know you can put in contingencies for financing and inspections, but is there anything else I should be aware of?  I'm going to look at the property with my agent tonight and hopefully have an offer submitted by the morning if all goes well.

A little background on me - I work for a private equity firm and we buy rental properties, renovate them, and then sell them to investors and usually maintain the management contract of the property.  Most of my estimates are conservative, but I'll still be going through with a few contractors I've worked with just to make sure that my numbers are close.