Making an Offer

[Jeremy M.]

How do I make a offer for a home on sale with a realtor and homes that are FSBO. Do i need a realtor to do this for me? do i just call up the homeowner?

[Mitch Stephen]

I say, "NEVER involve a realtor if you don't have to." There are offers you can make that a realtor won't even come close to understnding. Example; I did the first 400+ deals with $10 dollars earnest money. Try getting that done with a realtor. I offered to pay the full asking price of $100,000 if the Seller would accept 120 equal payments of $833.34 (and had it accepted)... That's a no interest loan for 10 years ($100,000 divided by 120 pmts = $833.34 per month). Try getting a realtor to make that offer and be successful. I've made offers with the right to substitue collateral. Try getting your realtor to support that offer. Now, I want to be perfectly clear; there are bound to be realtors out there that will do it, but they are far and inbetween.

Learn to write your own contracts. Get a list of things to consider adding into the [b]"special provisions" when your BUYING and another list to consider adding when your SELLING. Just a sentence or two can save you thousands and/or make you tens of thousands.