You saw the home this morning, you liked it, and your agent says offers are due Sunday. In a 2025 survey of 1,005 homeowners by Guardian Service, a home insurer, 38% of first-time buyers said they felt pressured to decide quickly, and those who did were nearly three times as likely to regret the purchase. Two days is enough to run the numbers and ask the questions that matter, and this checklist puts them in order.

First evening: check the budget

  • Run the home in the free ownership-cost calculator with its real price, the tax bill and HOA dues from the listing, and an insurance estimate. Note the month-one budget and the cash to close. Our guide to what you’ll really pay each month and at closing walks through each line.
  • Decide the most you are willing to pay each month, with room left to keep saving, before you look at the price again.
  • Check that your preapproval covers this price, and ask your lender to price the loan for this home if there is time.

Next morning: look up the home

  • Run the address through the free check. It shows the home’s estimated monthly payment (mortgage, taxes and insurance), the asking price beside the home’s estimated value, and a score out of 10 for how the home is positioned to appreciate in its market, with its confidence. Your first home is free.
  • If the asking price and the estimated value sit far apart, work through the questions in how to judge an asking price.
  • Read the listing’s history: how long it has been for sale, whether the price has been cut, and whether it went under contract and came back.

Next day: ask the questions

Ask your agent, and through them the listing agent:

  • What do the seller’s disclosures say about the roof, the heating and cooling, water, and past insurance claims?
  • For a condo or a home with an HOA: what do the association’s budget and reserves look like, have there been special assessments recently or are any planned, and what do the rules allow?
  • What is the current property tax bill, and will it change after the sale?
  • What did similar homes nearby sell for recently? Ask your agent for the closed sales and how they adjusted for differences.
  • How many offers are expected, and which terms matter most to the seller, such as the closing date?
  • Can you get an insurance quote for this address now, before you commit to a price?

Before you sign: set your number and your terms

  • Write down two prices: the price you would be glad to pay, and your walk-away price. Set them from what you learned above and check the top one against the monthly limit you set on the first evening.
  • Decide which contingencies you keep. Inspection, appraisal and financing contingencies each protect you against a different problem, so ask your agent what each one covers before you consider waiving any.
  • Sleep on it once, even with a tight deadline. A number you wrote down yesterday is easier to hold to than one you choose with the clock running.
  • Run the Before you commit questions in the Buyer’s Toolkit as a last pass.

If the numbers and the answers hold up, you write the offer knowing what you are agreeing to, and if they point the other way, walking away is a sound decision too.