Making an Offer

Chris and Stephanie Wendell spent three months looking for a home in Rockville, Md. before they made a house offer. When they saw a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath townhome in Regent Square, they thought they'd found "the one."

"We pulled into the parking lot and saw a really massive oak tree near the house. I said to Chris, 'Unless this place is really disgusting inside, this is it,'" Stephanie Wendell recalls.

Working with real estate agent Lisa Abrams of Re/Max All-Pro, they crafted a house offer. Having researched the process, they knew that submitting an offer-to-purchase contract would entail more than simply coming up with a price.

"It was hectic. We submitted our offer and then found out there was another one for the same house," Wendell says.