First offer accepted on a condo in a crazy market!

[Yixue Zhao]

Hello everyone! Can't believe I just got my very first offer accepted!! I was so worried that we can't use our low locked-in rate (it will expire in a couple of weeks) and the market is absolutely insane right now! But they accepted our offer and now I'm both super excited and a bit nervous...

This week, I saw a condo I was interested in was back on the market but I'm out of town (the first deal's finance fell through). The pictures show some water damage in the common area (see my post with pictures: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...) and I was a bit concerned. After consulting with our BP family, I still decided to put in an offer anyway! I'm a bit nervous because I'm out of town and can't tour it. But I didn't want to miss it because the condo is in a great location (near UMass Amherst) that's super easy to rent out! We'll occupy it for a year as an owner-occupied property and it would cut our housing expenses in half while we live in it! 

Here are some numbers.

Aksing: 195K (2b1b condo, 1040 sf, HOA 265/month)

We offered 217K with a clause saying we'll cover up to 12K above the appraisal (a similar condo recently was sold at 200K) -- We figured 12K is how much we can save on rent for the first year when we live in it at least...

Interest rate: 3.625%

Estimate rent: 1800/month

A bit nervous that we might be overpaying but everything in our area is sold so fast and people are paying way over asking! I just thought the interest rate is not gonna go down anytime soon, so I really wanted to use my low rate to become a homeowner and stop the super expensive renting situation. The rental market is really strong in that location, so it will cash flow after we move out. If we buy and hold, it seems to be a good entry property to get my feet wet. Also, with a low interest rate, more purchase price doesn't make that big of a difference in our monthly payment. It's just overpaying 12K over appraisal seems a bit crazy...?

This is my first time and I really don't know what I'm doing LOL Is this gonna be a good deal? Anything I should watch out for? We didn't waive inspection so there's still reason to back out. Any thoughts are more than welcome! I really appreciate the help from our wonderful community!

P.S. I'll see it in person and do a home inspection next week. Hopefully, everything would work out!! Wish me luck!