An offer!!

7/28/04 8:30 AM

Wow. Talk about timing! Got an offer on the house – a mere three hours after worrying about no offers! And an offer for $142K - full asking price! But they want me to give them 3% back at closing to help pay for their closing costs, plus they want me to provide a home warrantee (max cost $350). I also pay for a termite inspection. Interestingly, they want me pay for the appraisal but will reimburse me for it at closing. Normally, that's something the seller pays for anyway. They put down $1K earnest money and will put down $49K cash for purchase and finance the rest. They are already qualified for a loan and we have the name and phone number of their loan officer to verify. I'm ok with the home warrantee - it saves lots of hassles if something breaks (they don't come back to me to complain and they don't have to pay to get it fixed), but the 3% cash back is a new one to me. Strange to word it this way instead of asking for $4K (about 3%) off the purchase price. Still, they've got $50K in cash to buy this thing, so this is a strong offer.

I decide to counter with accepting the home warrantee and everything else, but paying only 1% cash back. We'll see what they say.