Well, after the announcement, Princess Profit waited for her "knight in shining armor" to come and sweep her off her feet. She waited and she waited. And then she waited some more.

There were so few knights in the kingdom that she found herself even willing to settle for a "knight in tarnished armor".

Just when she was ready to give up, low and behold two "knights in training" showed up to ask for her hand in marriage. They weren't exactly what she was hoping for, but she decided to look 'em over.

The first knight, "Ted", showed up at the castle wearing only a Speedo Swim suit which showed his flabby, white body. His messed up hair, and apparent lack of regular hygiene were also negatives in Princess Profits eyes.

With a look of distain, and a flip of her hand, the princess rejected Ted and sent him on his way.

The other knight, "Lars", didn't have a shiny suite of armor either, but he was dressed in an nice suit and tie. He was handsome, well kept, and enticing to our fair maiden, the Princess.

Even though Lars wasn't the knight in shining armor that the princess was looking for, she felt he was worth considering. After thinking about it overnight, she decided to marry Lars. Of course they lived happily ever after. The End.

All home sellers are waiting for their "knight in shining armor" homebuyer to show up at their door. This is the kind of buyer that offers full price for the seller's home, pays cash and wants a quick close.

Home sellers are willing to settle for a "knight in tarnished armor" homebuyer. This homebuyer needs to get a loan to buy their home; they negotiate for a lower purchase price, and sometimes take more than 30 days to close the loan and buy the house.

But what about the really low offers, the "low-ball" offers that some homebuyers occasionally make?

Most sellers won't consider a "low-ball" offer, but some will, especially if they need to sell soon and if the offer is "well dressed and created to be enticing" to the seller.

With the real estate market slowing down there are many investors and 2nd home buyers making low offers to sellers that have their homes for sale.

Typically these low offers have been "Ted like"; unappealing, soft and distasteful to the home sellers; in other words, a poorly created low offer. The kind of offer that the seller rejects with a flip of their hand.

There are several elements to a poorly created, low price offer that gets rejected automatically. If you can pretend you're the seller for a moment, you will see what I mean with the first example:

A "Ted" like, low offer:

? Soft, flabby financing: little or no down payment and the buyer hasn't been pre-qualified with a local mortgage lender.

? Tiny, little earnest money deposit.

? Unattractive contingencies that put all the risk of the transaction on the seller shoulders.

If you think about the low offer you are making to the home seller, and the rewards you will receive if the seller accepts your offer, you can understand how important it is to "dress-up the offer" with financial items the seller will find appealing.

For example, here is an appealing offer that "Lars" might make on a $250,000 home:

? The home seller is asking $250,000 for their home, but the home has sat unsold for several months.

? Lars offers $200,000, but is willing to come up to $225,000.

? Earnest money: Lars offers $10,000 (or more), with the earnest money being "hard earnest money". Hard earnest money means the earnest money is released to the seller shortly after the offer is accepted, usually after the due diligence deadline passes. Of course the earnest money becomes non-refundable at that point. Can you see how this would appeal to a motivated seller? Keep in mind that Lars is going after a $25,000+ profit that he didn't have to do much work for.

? Lars will be making a 20%, or more, down payment. A good solid, "muscle-bound" down-payment and loan. Not at all flabby. Lars can use this to convince the sellers that he is a very strong, qualified buyer.

? "Lars" offer includes a letter of pre-approval from a local lender. Better yet, he might get a certificate of full-approval by taking care of all loan documentation before making an offer.

? "Lars" love for the "Princess" would be unconditional. He would present a clean offer with the only contingencies being the due diligence time period of about two weeks to evaluate the property. He would also set the closing deadline at 30 days or less after acceptance of his offer.

This type of offer will occasionally be accepted in a soft real estate market. An investor, like Lars, could make tons of money all year long by making strong, low-ball offers like this and then buying the homes in which his offers are accepted.

If you really want to buy a home for below market value, consider making a strong muscle-bound, enticing offer. This might work more often than you might think.