Here's what NOT to do when submitting an offer....
So I'm buying a personal residence for myself. Came across this house that fit nearly all my parameters but the place needed a lot of work and they were asking more than I qualified for. Passed on it and kept searching.
A week or so later, my agent gets an email from the listing agent saying that the owners needed to sell and wanted to know what I would offer. It had been on the market for about 4 months. House was listed for $399k, was worth about $450k fixed up but needed between $60-80k in rehab.
I put an offer in for $300k, really thinking they weren't going to take it but that's the price I would have needed to be for the rehab cost and equity I was looking for. Signed the offer, sent it in, then the listing agent asked for a financial information sheet, which I'm still not clear the point of since it doesn't require any supporting docs. Due to an insane work schedule this week, it took me about a day and a half to get the info sheet back to the listing agent.
Turns out that just before I sent it back in, another offer came in which they accepted. Come to find out that my offer had been accepted and signed, they were just waiting on my info sheet. Poof goes about $150k in nearly instant equity and a great house I was starting to believe might actually become mine. I'm kicking the crap out of myself right now but I learned a valuable lesson.
Moral of the story: don't sit on paperwork when it comes in. Knock it out and get it back to your agent so someone else doesn't swoop in and steal a deal out from under you, regardless of how far-fetched it may seem. I'm beating myself up because blaming my work schedule is really just an excuse, I could and should have made time to get it done and I explicitly remember thinking to myself, "It's been on the market 4 months with no traffic. It can wait another few hours." No, apparently it couldn't.
Next step is to send out a direct mail campaign to owners in that neighborhood. I'm going to find a better deal than that one; it won't be easy but I'm sure as heck going to try. First offer will be for $299,999. :-)