When you finally narrow down your search to the one house you want to buy, you will need to sit down your real estate agent and write up an offer. Writing an offer can be exciting, but it can also be nerve-racking because buying a house is a big deal. As you write up your offer, your agent may talk to you about adding contingencies to it, and there are several types of contingencies you could ask for in your offer:

Home Inspection

There are certain types of common contingencies added to almost every offer, and one of these is a home inspection contingency. The purpose of adding this is to say that you will buy the house, but you have the right to get a home inspection so that you can see if the house has any major flaws you did not know about.

Closing Costs

A second common contingency to add is one that asks the seller to pay some of your closing costs. If you want to add this, you will need to determine how much to ask for. You could ask the seller to pay $3,000 of your closing costs, or you could ask for more or less; it's up to you.

Repairs

While many offers do not contain contingencies related to repairs, there are a lot that do. If you see something in the house that needs to be addressed, you could make your offer contingent upon the seller making the specific repair you are asking for. You might even want to state that you are asking the seller to make any repairs needed after the home inspector completes the inspection and finds problems with the house.

Interest Rate

Another contingency you could include involves one that relates to the interest rate on your loan. This is not commonly used, but it is something you could ask for. With this contingency, you are basically telling the seller that you are making the offer based on the fact that you will get a certain interest rate from your lender.

For example, you could write the contingency up to say that you will buy the house if your lender agrees to give you an interest rate of 3.99% or less.

These are some of the contingencies you could include on the offer you write up, but there are plenty of others too. Contact an agency to help you find the best homes for sale in your area.