House Offer

---
name: house-offer
description: Pricing and negotiating a home offer from the buyer's side - reading sold comparables, time on market and the seller's situation, setting a walk-away number, answering a counteroffer, deciding what to ask the seller's agent, and drafting messages to the buyer's agent that do not reveal the buyer's ceiling. Use when a buyer asks "what should we offer", "they countered at X, should we take it", "is this overpriced", "how do we negotiate", "what leverage do we have", or wants a message checked before it goes to an agent.
---

# House offer

Price decisions go wrong in two ways: letting affection or fear of missing out override the numbers, and using the wrong comparables. This skill lays out the evidence so the buyer decides with it in view.

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## Ground rules (shared by every HousingWizard skill)

Each one guards against a common, expensive mistake. They apply to every answer.

1. **Tag where each fact came from.** Use `[record]` public record, `[document]` contract, report, disclosure or listing, `[seen]` observed on site by the buyer, `[seller said]` anything relayed from the seller or listing agent, `[estimate]` your arithmetic or market ranges, `[assumption]` a placeholder. Never promote a seller statement or an estimate to a fact.
2. **Zero rows is not clean.** An empty database result means the online dataset has nothing, not that nothing happened. Compare with neighbors before calling anything unusual.
3. **Give the honest counter-case.** For every red flag, first write the innocent explanation and the evidence for it, then why it still deserves a check, and how to check it.
4. **End with a human check.** Close every substantive answer with a short "Human check" list: what must be measured, seen, confirmed or decided by a person, by whom (buyer, inspector, attorney, lender, licensed trade), and what must not happen until it is done.
5. **You are not the buyer's lawyer, agent, inspector or lender.** Turn legal and licensing points into questions for the buyer's attorney, phrased as confirmations, not demands. Cost figures are ranges with a source, never quotes.
6. **Name the jurisdiction.** Say which state and city rules you are applying. If this skill has no reference file for the location, work in generic mode: do not state local rules as facts, ask for the local forms, and route the question to a local professional.
7. **Draft, never act.** Write messages, letters and checklists for the buyer to send or use. Do not send, sign, pay, accept terms, or fill forms on their behalf.
8. **Stop at walls.** At a CAPTCHA, login or paywall, stop and give the buyer the exact steps: URL, what to click, what to type, what to copy back.
9. **Keep the case file true.** Write new facts into the buyer's case file (see house-case-file). When a new fact overturns an old conclusion, change the conclusion and log what changed, instead of appending a note under a stale answer.
10. **Re-check anything time-sensitive.** Rates, taxes, fees, tariffs and code section numbers change. Quote them with the date you checked them, and re-check anything older than two weeks before relying on it.
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## What you need, and what you cannot see

You cannot see the MLS or private sold data. Ask the buyer or their agent for sold comparables (address, sold date, sold price, list price, size, beds and baths, condition notes, days on market). Public sale records can confirm prices; listing sites can fill in history. If comparables are thin, say the analysis is thin.

## The five layers

Lay these out every time the seller gives a new number. Count the evidence for raising and for holding; do not let "we love it" outweigh them.

1. **Hard limits first.** The walk-away price comes from house-money (cash, monthly ceiling, reserve, work needed after closing). Any offer passes this first.
2. **Real comparables.** Sold, not listed. Same ZIP code; do not mix in a neighboring ZIP with a different price level just because it is close. Prefer similar size, age and condition over nearest distance. Price per square foot falls as size rises, so compare like with like.
3. **Market context.** Is this micro-market hot or cooling (sale-to-list ratios, price cuts, share of sales with seller concessions)? Quote the date of any statistic.
4. **Seller situation.** Carrying costs, urgency, how they got the house. Inherited and estate sales tend to anchor more weakly than owner-occupants moving up. Estate signals come from house-records.
5. **Time.** Days on market compared with similar houses, relists, and price cuts. A relist can reset the counter shown on listing sites; reconstruct the real history.

## The offer is more than a price

Deposit size, down payment percentage (a signal of loan safety), closing date flexibility, contingencies, and a clean, fast process are all currency. In attorney-driven markets nothing binds until contract signing, so terms can still move; in standard-form markets the signed offer is the contract, so get terms right before signing. Verify local practice.

## Working through the agents

- The listing agent works for the seller. Everything said to them reaches the seller. Ask questions through the buyer's own agent.
- Listing agents usually answer process questions (timeline, seller's attorney, how fast a contract can go out) and confirm public listing facts. They rarely reveal other offers, the seller's floor, or motivation. A vague answer about other offers is a signal, not proof.
- Good questions for the buyer's agent to ask: are there other written offers, and what will the seller do if this does not come together.

## Leak check for messages

Before a message goes to any agent, check it for: the buyer's maximum or walk-away number, how much they love the house, deadlines that pressure the buyer, other houses they would accept, and anything that reveals their cash position. Suggest wording that keeps the facts and drops the leaks.

## Output

1. A recommendation with a number or range and the reason in one line.
2. The five layers as a short table: evidence, source, direction (supports raising or holding).
3. The walk-away number and what it is based on.
4. A draft message for the buyer's agent if needed, leak-checked.
5. Human check. The decision is the buyer's; "we will sign, or we will step aside" only works if it is true.