Five Ways To Strengthen Your Offer
April 7, 2025
Five Ways To Strengthen Your Offer — Without Increasing the Price
In a competitive real estate market, many buyers believe they’ll have to be the highest bidders to get the seller to sign their offer. While price is, of course, one of the top priorities for sellers, you can use other strategies to help make your offer more attractive.
1. Make your offer all cash
A cash offer usually means the seller doesn’t have to worry about any financing-related snags, which can give them more confidence that you’ll close on time. According to data from the National Association of Realtors, around 4% to 7% of real estate purchases fall through due to financing issues.
2. Close when it's convenient for the seller
For some sellers, the convenience of closing on a specific date can outweigh the draw of a slightly higher sales price. Sometimes the seller wants to delay closing, while in other cases they may want to close as quickly as possible (you’ll generally want to avoid trying to close in less than 30 days, since the title search and mortgage payoff may take several weeks to process).
3. Conduct an inspection before making the offer
Many buyers think that you either conduct an inspection or you don’t. In a hyper-competitive market, you might find yourself in a situation where competing offers don’t have any inspection contingencies. If that happens, one option you can consider is asking the seller whether you can conduct an inspection before writing up your offer.