Don’t Make an Offer Without Including These 10 Items (Save Thousands)

Real Estate Rookie

BiggerPockets

Business, Education, Entrepreneurship, Investing, How To

4.7 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2026

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What’s worse than losing a real estate offer? Winning one on a “headache” rental property! Sometimes, the difference between a “good” deal and “bad” one comes down to what’s written in your offer. Many real estate investors (and even agents) overlook crucial terms, and these oversights can lead to costly regrets. Today’s guest is breaking down exactly what to include so your next real estate deal doesn’t come back to bite you. Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! Laila Smith brings 17 years of experience as a Dallas-Fort Worth real estate agent, mortgage loan officer, and investor. Over her career, she’s analyzed many rental properties and written countless offers, giving her a clear understanding of where deals most often go wrong. In this episode, Laila shares the 10 essential terms she includes in every offer she writes. From seller-paid closing costs and home warranties to repair deadlines and HOA review rights, these line items could save you thousands and a ton of stress! In This Episode We Cover 10 terms you should include in every real estate offer you make Why making strong offers is one of the most “underrated” real estate skills Costly expenses you should always ask the seller to pay for How to write a “winning” offer without taking on unnecessary risk Common pitfalls that could cost you thousands on your next real estate deal And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-702 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You could offer the highest price in a house and still lose the deal or worse, win it and deeply regret it.
0:06.7	Because of what was not in the contract, today, DFW Realtor and Mortgage Loan Officer Layla Smith
0:13.1	is going to walk us through the 10 things she puts in every buyer's offer to protect her clients.
0:18.7	These are the terms most people overlook and the ones that
0:21.7	could save you thousands. Today, we are talking about one of the most underrated skills in real
0:26.6	estate, not finding deals, not financing them, but actually writing the offer in a way that
0:32.4	protects you from the moment you sign to the moment you close. Our guest today is a DFW realtor and licensed mortgage loan officer who started her career as an investor
0:41.8	alongside her husband before earning her license.
0:44.9	She knows what it feels like to be on the buyer's side and that experience shapes every offer she writes.
0:58.2	This is The Real Estate Rookie Podcast. I'm Ashley Care.
1:02.6	And I'm Tony J. Robinson. And with that, let's give a big warm welcome, Leila. Thank you for joining us today.
1:03.9	Thank you for having me.
1:09.6	Now, Leila, before we get into your list here, give us a 30-second version of your story.
1:12.6	So you started as an investor. Then you became a realtor and also a loan officer. What made you want to do all three of these things? And how does
1:18.6	the combination change the way that you write offers? Well, I decided to start all three, really,
1:25.1	because I actually started being a lender and then a realtor after that with investing as well, just because it made it a complete package for my clients.
1:33.6	I haven't run into anybody else I know that is all three of those things.
1:39.8	Do you know, Tony, especially an agent and a lender?
1:43.5	I don't think that I, unless somebody just didn't tell me that. David Green, no? Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is checks that box. And James Dainer. Doesn't, Jimmy has a lending company. Okay. Now you're getting ahead of yourself. Okay. I know two people. Now three. Well, let me ask, right? Because I think that a lot of investors just kind of
2:06.3	stay investors, but it does give an agent, I think, a slightly different perspective. Because
2:11.6	there are a lot of investors who end up becoming agents. I think there's fewer agents who are
2:16.1	also investors. So how does that background
	...

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