Making an offer.

Great! You've found the perfect home and are ready to make an offer.

Before I draft the offer for us to review together, I need a few details from you. Please provide the following information to ensure we can move forward smoothly. You can email, text, or fill out a form to send your responses (click here to fill out the form).

Information we need:

Full Legal Name:
Please send us the full legal name of everyone who will be on the contract, along with their email address. The name must match what's on their driver's license, as they'll need to present this (or a passport) at closing, and the name must match what appears on the contract.

Initial Offer Price:
What is the initial price you'd like to offer for the home? I will provide you with comparable sales, a market analysis, and my professional opinion on what the home is worth, but ultimately, the decision on the offer price is yours.

Your Walk-Away Price:
It’s rare for a seller to accept an initial offer without some negotiation, so the first offer may not be the final price. In addition to your starting offer, it's important to determine the highest amount you're willing to pay—your "walk-away price"—before negotiations become emotional. We won’t share this price with the seller, but it will help us guide you through the process.

Closing Date:
In Nashville, closings typically occur 30 to 45 days after contract acceptance, with 30 days being the average. For purchases involving loans, we can sometimes close within 21 days (if your lender can accommodate that timeline), while cash purchases can close as quickly as 14 days.

If you're hoping for a shorter or longer closing window, let us know. For example, a 60–90 day closing may be possible depending on the seller's preferences, but it's not guaranteed. Be sure to confirm with your lender how fast they can close.

Closings typically happen Monday through Friday, during normal business hours, and take about 1–2 hours. Try to avoid closing on a Friday since possession of your new home isn’t granted until the seller receives their funds. We do not want to delay possession over the weekend . If you cannot attend in person, let us know at least 2–3 weeks in advance so a Power of Attorney can be arranged to sign on your behalf.

Earnest Money:
How much earnest money are you comfortable offering? In Nashville, 1% of the purchase price is common. Earnest money is refundable if contract contingencies aren't met or is credited to you at closing. Refer to lines 159–189 of the Purchase and Sale Agreement for more details on how Earnest Money is handled.

Down Payment:
For the contract, please specify how much you plan to put down as your down payment (e.g., 3.5%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%).

Closing Cost Credits:
Do you want to ask the seller to contribute to your closing costs? Typically, buyers and sellers each pay their own, but we can request that the seller cover a portion of your closing costs if needed. We only recommend this if you don’t have enough funds to cover both your down payment and closing costs.

Home Warranty:
Would you like to request a home warranty from the seller? If there are no competing offers on the property, we usually advise asking for a one-year home warranty, which typically costs the seller between $500 and $800, depending on the type of property.

Items to Remain with the Property:
The Purchase and Sale Agreement (lines 12–22) lists items that are included with the property at no additional cost to the buyer. If there's anything not on this list that you’d like the seller to leave behind, please let us know.

Contingencies:
Are there any other contingencies we should be aware of? For example, do you need to sell your current home before you can purchase this one? Do you want to make the contract contingent on inspection? Appraisal? Financing?

Once we have these details, we can move forward with the offer!

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You can read the Nashville contract by clicking here.

Once you've gone over the questions above, feel free to email or text us your responses, or click here to submit them through a form. After receiving your answers, we’ll draft the contract, review it together, and have you sign it using a platform called TransactionDesk. We’ll then present the offer to the seller’s agent.

While negotiations can sometimes move quickly, it often takes 2–4 days to finalize the purchase price and terms. Every seller is different—some make decisions quickly, while others need more time to think things over. Patience is key once an offer is submitted, as we don’t want to appear too eager and risk weakening our negotiating position