Any tips for a first-time home buyer?

[Honkinggoose]

I can’t argue with your logic, and if I had thought about it, might have done the same thing.

It did not matter on our last two house purchases - one in a cooler than average market, and the other in a blazing hot market. We stood firm on each of our offers. In both instances, our offers were accepted, despite having financing well above the offers. We may have just gotten lucky, but I’m confident that we did not leave money on the table.

Good luck finding the best house you can, for the best price you can negotiate.

We did leave money on the table in the form of using a non-rebating real estate agent. Both homes were in cities that we were completely unfamiliar with. We had never heard of a rebating agent at the early purchase, and the Redfin agents we interviewed here had less time in the market/area than we wanted.

[BostonOne]

@scripta

Not in a hot market with multiple potential offers. Your offer should have your pre-approval letter and earnest deposit. And OP is right, the letter probably shouldn’t be above the offered amount.

Depending on how hot the market is, it could work against you. If you’re the third or fourth place offer and they are going back to ask for best & final offers, they may not ask you. The risk is probably small, but it’s a possibility.