What Should I Ask Before Making an Offer on a Home?
A buyer I worked with last year found a home she loved on a Sunday afternoon. The neighborhood felt right. The floor plan worked perfectly for her family. The backyard was exactly what she had been looking for. She was ready to make an offer before we even finished the tour. I told her we needed to ask a few questions first. She was a little impatient. Understandably so. When you find a home that feels right, the last thing you want to do is slow down. But the questions we asked in the next twenty-four hours changed her offer strategy significantly and ultimately helped her win the home under terms that protected her far better than the offer she would have written in the excitement of that Sunday afternoon. Most buyers think making an offer is about picking a number and submitting it. Experienced buyers know that an offer is a strategic document and that the information you gather before writing it determines how competitive, how protective, and how well-positioned that offer actually is. Here are the questions every buyer should ask before making an offer on any home in Minnesota. Why Is the Seller Moving? This question feels personal. It is. And that is exactly why it matters. Understanding a seller’s motivation gives you critical insight into what they actually need from the transaction, which is often about much more than just the highest price. A seller who is relocating for a job that starts in six weeks needs a fast closing. A seller who has already purchased their next home and is carrying two mortgages is under financial pressure that may make them more negotiable on price. A seller whose home has been sitting on the market for two months is in a very different position than one who just listed three days ago and already has multiple interested buyers. You will not always get a complete answer. Sellers and their agents are not required to share personal details. But even a partial answer, or the absence of one, tells you something useful about how to position your offer. Your Realtor can often gather this information informally through conversation with the listing agent. Those conversations happen regularly and can reveal motivations that dramatically change your offer strategy. How Long Has the Home Been on the Market? Days on market is one of the most telling data points available to any buyer. A home that has been on the market for a week in a neighborhood where comparable homes sell in ten days is priced competitively and attracting attention. You are likely looking at a situation that requires a strong, clean offer with minimal contingencies if you want to compete seriously. A home that has been listed for sixty days in that same neighborhood is communicating something different. Either the price is too high relative to the market, there is something about the home that is giving buyers pause, or the marketing has not reached the right audience. Any of those possibilities is worth understanding before you make an offer. Ask your Realtor to pull the full listing history. Some homes are relisted after being taken off the market briefly to reset the days on market counter. A home that appears to have been listed for two weeks may actually have been sitting for three months with a brief withdrawal in between. That history is relevant information. Have There Been Any Price Reductions? A price reduction tells you that the original listing price was higher than the market was willing to support. This matters for two reasons. First, it tells you something about how the seller and their agent initially assessed the value of the home, and whether that assessment was accurate. A home that started at $425,000 and is now listed at $399,000 after thirty days had a pricing problem at launch. That does not necessarily mean the current price is wrong, but it is worth examining carefully before you offer. Second, it gives you negotiating context. A seller who has already reduced their price once has already demonstrated some flexibility. They may have more. They may be at their floor. Your Realtor can help you assess which is more likely based on the current market conditions and comparable sales data. What Do the Comparable Sales Actually Say? Before writing any offer, you need to know what the market says the home is actually worth. Comparable sales, often called comps, are recent sales of similar homes in the same area. They are the most reliable indicator of market value available to any buyer and they are the foundation on which any offer price should be built. Your Realtor will prepare a comparative market analysis that looks at homes with similar square footage, bedroom and bathroom counts, lot size, condition, and location that have sold recently, typically within the last three to six months and within a reasonable geographic radius. What you are looking for is where the current listing price sits relative to those comps. Is it priced below market value, which might explain multiple competing offers? Is it priced at market value, suggesting the seller is realistic and the price is fair? Is it priced above what the comps support, which means either the seller believes their home has features that justify a premium or they are testing the market with an aspirational price? Knowing this before you make an offer lets you write a number that is grounded in data rather than emotion. It also prepares you for the appraisal, because if your offer price exceeds what the comps support, the appraisal may come in lower and create a gap you will need to address. What Is Included in the Sale? This question prevents surprises that buyers discover too late. In Minnesota real estate, certain items are assumed to be included in the sale as fixtures, meaning they are attached to the home and transfer with it. Other items are personal property that the