One of the most essential elements of home buying process involves making the perfect offer for your home. Real Estate experts encourage all home buyers to take the time to research prices in the community and create their own reservation cost, or perhaps the highest price they're willing to invest for the house. A reservation cost helps you to bid more efficiently and stay within your financial budget, making it easier to negotiate with your seller or seller's broker in terms of making a deal.

Barron's 'Smart Consumer Guide to Home Buying' states that it is normal for home buyers to cut the price of its offering price to create some room for negotiation when making the offer; there is no rule on how much this discount needs to be, however it depends mainly on market conditions and just how much you actually want the home.

Below is a simple process for determining the reservation price in order to get the right price for your dream house:

1. Write down the exact amount you can afford to pay every month. This may be near to what you are paying for now, or what you're comfortably willing to pay per month on property fees.

2. Calculate your tax as well as your insurance rates. Barron's 'Smart Consumer Guide to Home Buying' offers the following suggestions for computing tax as well as insurance costs. Use a factor of .68 for areas with higher tax and insurance costs; .85 if tax and insurance is relatively inexpensive; or use the standard .75 for a rough estimate. Multiplying this rate by the amount in Step 1 will give you the affordable loan P&I payment.

3. Calculate your typical mortgage loan term as well as interest rate. Write down the mortgage term in years and the interest rate. You'll need to locate the appropriate charge from the loan payment tables which are relevant to this loan term and to the interest fee.

4. Calculate your total mortgage loan amount. This will be found in the loan payment tables; you can also obtain this from a mortgage company.

5. Include your cash available for your advance payment. This will help give you a final figure of the amount you can afford to pay for the home.

Right after finishing the computation in Step 5, you can compare it to Step 1 to see what the difference is. This will the negotiating range that you can use when making your deal. When the amount from Step 1 is more than Step 5, you may be able to get a deal by bidding a higher price than the vendor offers. If the amount in Step 1 is lesser than Step 5, you will need to focus on reducing the final price to a more affordable range.

Calculating your reservation price is an important part of homebuying process and can help you negotiate the best possible deal for your situation and get the home you want. Consider using these calculations for every property you're considering so you have the confidence to overbid or negotiate for a lower price with the budget you have.

About the Author: Alexandria P. Anderson is a Lake Minnetonka real estate agent that helps people to find and purchase Lake Minnetonka homes and properties for sale in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.