When you are buying a home under $400K, there is a good chance you will have competition from other buyers.  

If so, you might then wonder whether you should add an escalation clause and waiving inspection and appraisal contingencies.

If it is still early in the home search, many buyers will start with more conservative offers and see how things go.

A full price offer, contingent on inspection and appraisal?  Great. Let's do it.

That type of offer gives you the ability to learn more about the house via an inspection and gives you options if the appraisal comes in low.

But over time, your perspective might change.

Making the offer described above might cause you to miss out on some (or many) houses in a competitive offer scenario.

Eventually, you might decide you are tired of missing out on houses... and you might decide to make your offers stronger and to take on a bit more risk.

That might mean an escalation clause... and it might mean removing the inspection and/or appraisal contingency.

But remember... you don't have to do that on your first offer... unless you really love the house.

Many buyers, reasonably, start conservatively with their offers - until they get to a house that motivates them to change their strategy, or until enough time and houses they have missed out on cause them to change their approach.