I have reviewed your "Offer to Purchase and Contract" and have a few areas of advice and concern, as set forth below:

The most important aspects of a residential real estate contract are, in order of importance (a) sales price (b) that sale be contigent of buyer arranging financing at reasonable rates and within a reasonable period and (c) right of inspection. A final point is a little less important, only because its omission can be corrected retroactively, and that is the offer's expiration. Only after these should you be concerned with possession and contents. Keep these in mind as we proceed.

Paragraph 3 - list all personal property you want, window treatments, range, air conditioner, refrigerator, dishwasher, chandeliers if special, everything you reasonably want included in the offer. It is better to take the time and trouble to write "dishwasher" than two write "etc." and find yourself without a dishwasher you thought you were paying for. Even though many things may actually be covered as "fixtures", it is clear and unambiguous if they are listed specifically, and may help avoid misunderstandings and conflicts in the long run.

As a first time homeowner, it is probably cheaper and easier to buy your appliances with the house, even though you may be able to get nicer stuff new. Financing them on a 30 year amortization should be relatively painless, and the price you actually pay for them may be negligible or even nonexistent. The seller may include them, despite the fact that in valuing the property, the appliances wil not generally be included. On the other hand, you probably should not pay more than $1000 total on the appliances unless there is a single appliance or item in the house which alone could meet that price. Look at the Best Buy ads if you have that store to price appliances - they are getting pretty cheap, and by not buying them, you might actually force the seller to move out unwanted appliances.

Paragraph 4 - as stated earlier, you probably want your opening bid at around 90% of the asking price, and your final price should be no more than about 95%. As far as earnest money, I would suggest that $100.00 is sufficient. This is really pretty much meaningless. I have only known one transaction when the buyer didn't get the earnest money back, and that lead to an ugly lawsuit. However, you are going to have a lot of expenses in buyng the house and moving, and deferring the cash outlay is probably the best course of action. Again, few if any transactions fal apart over insufficient earnest money.

When you pay the earnest money, give it in check form and deliver it to your realtor, made out to either the Realty or their trust account. You do not want to give it to the seller. This may in fact never even be cashed, and the check returned to you at closing. It may, on the other hand, be cashed and deposited in a trust account, but should be retrievable if the deal falls apart.

Paragraph 5 - Conditions THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. The deal MUST be made "Contigent of Financing." Financing, unless you have the full purchase price right this second in a FDIC insured bank account, is always a potential problem, and responsible for more blown real estate deals than all other factors put together. Despite whateveer assurances you may have from the bank, you are never sure until the closing is complete and the money disbursed. Even then there may be problems.

In Ohio, the customary language is something like "This contract is contigent of buyer securing financing prior to closing." Your contract calls for more specific information, such as the specific terms of the financing to be obtained. In some ways this is better than the Ohio way (even though in general I think the Ohio form contracts are better put together and cover some potential problems more specifically.) I would suggest the paragraph be filled in something like the folowing:

The Buyer must be abe to obtain a loan commitment on or before CLOSING, effective through the date of closing for a load at a X FIXED RATE ... in the principal amount SUFFICIENT TO EFFECT PURCHASE for a term of 30 years at an interest rate not to exceed 8.00% per annum with mortgage discount points not to exceed 0% ...

(If your pre-approval indicates a rate above 8%, use that number instead. Even if you loan is "rate locked" at this point, it is probably a good idea to build in a very small amount of upside room.

Additional Terms

Paragraph 1 lists no expiration date. This should be corrected. It is customary in Ohio to give 3 or 5 business days, with the expiration time being either midnight or 5 pm. Things could conceivably be more relaxed in the South, but it IS my understanding that you are largely among Yankees and should think and act accordingly. If the expiration date passes, that doesn't mean the deal is off. The parties can revise and extend the deadline as long as they can mutually agree. If you have a deadline and have it pass, you at least know you will not be obligated to buy the house, and can have an advantageous bargaining position: Either they will come to you asking to take your offer or you can use this as a de facto rejection, and attempt to obtain information from the realtor regarding why it was rejected and what may be acceptable terms. You can then use this information to exact the best bargain possible.

Paragraph 2 - I see no reason to check this, unless your real estate agent, in a fit of brainless desperation, insists, in which case it probably isn't worth fighting about - interest on $100.00 is pretty minimal, even over long stretches of time, and the Real Estate agent is already going to be compensated handsomely, at 5-7% of the sale price, why give them more?

Check boxes for paragraphs 3 & 4

Check paragraph 5. Give yourself at least 10 days, preferably 14 or even more for the inspections. Then do them. You are probably better off with a larger chain than an independent guy - they have standards and reputations to uphold. The incompetents around here are the independent old guys with some construction or maintenance experience who think they know what they're doing, but have actually never been taught. Some of these guys have been around 20 years, so age and experience mean little.

Check paragraph 6 if applicable - home is not the place to manage your coastlines on your own.

I don't see any reason to check any of the remaining paragraphs. 8 is clearly inapplicable on a buyer's first offer, 7 is taken care of by the financing contingency, as the bank will do an appraisal and generally refse financing if it comes significantly under, but could be checked if you want - give the appraiser lots of time, these things sometimes can take weeks. Checking #7 might provide a small degree of added security. DO NOT CHECK #9. This to me looks like a general "let the incompetent realtor off the hook" clause, and I don't see any reason why you should do that, at least not without getting anything for that release. I am certain the sellers don't care if it's checked. While not checking it may not preserve a right of action against the realtor, checking it may give up rights you would not otherwise have to.

#10 - if they satisfactorily fix it at sellers' expense, who cares how much it costs? If repairs are done, though, have it re-inspected after completion.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

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