We are looking for a new home in our town. There are two we are going to look at today and on their web site they both say MAKE ME AN OFFER. The one house has been on the market for almost a year and the other one two years. The realtor I'm working with (who is also a good friend) has told me that these have been sitting because of their price range. One is listed at 160,000 and one at 170,000. He said people are either buying houses that are around 100,000 or above 225,000 in our area. The real question I have is how low of an offer should I put on it if they are wanting to get out? I looked at the mls and both of these homes are valued at about the 150,000-155,000 range. I was kind of thinking offering about 85% of their asking price but wondering if that was too high? The way I see it is if they don't like the offer they will always counter offer me. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks.
Real Estate question
- Thread starter Wallruss64
- Start date
If they have been sitting for a year, you will get a counter with anything other than a joke bid. Offer 145, and see if they counter at 155 and then offer 150 final.
Go to your counties GIS page that lists all the property information for the county. Look at comps in the neighborhood and see what they have sold for.
One other thing is you can always raise your price after your initial offer, but you won't be able to lower it.
In my opinon the asking price is irrelevant. You should offer what you want to pay. Why should you base your offer based on what someone that has no clue as to the true value of their home tries to list the house at? It's just business. I'm always on the side of low balling, and giong from there. If they're too offended to play ball, go look at the house accross the street that is probably also for sale.
Get a list of comps. figure put a typical price per square foot for that area and do the math. We bought a new house in January and we paid about 85% of the list price. Spring market shouldn't be picking up yet, so they may be willing to wait longer. Really depends on what your market is doing.
Just make sure you don't pay more than you are comfortable with.
Just make sure you don't pay more than you are comfortable with.
If these houses are in Monticello (based on your profile information) it may be common that a house sits on the market for a year simply because there isn't the traffic you would see in DSM or Cedar Rapids.
If they have been on the market that long, I would say the owners aren't desperate to sell, or they would either be short sales, or they would have let them go into foreclosure.
Whatever you offer, just make sure they know you are serious - meaning you have all your financing in place and all you have to do is pick the house.
You have to make an offer you feel comfortable with, and can afford the monthly payment.
If they have been on the market that long, I would say the owners aren't desperate to sell, or they would either be short sales, or they would have let them go into foreclosure.
Whatever you offer, just make sure they know you are serious - meaning you have all your financing in place and all you have to do is pick the house.
You have to make an offer you feel comfortable with, and can afford the monthly payment.
Well looked at the two places and were really interested in one of them. The house right next door sold last year for about $74/sq ft. This place is for sale for $159,900. If I went by the sq ft price it would be about $115000. I know that it is worth more than that because the entire first floor is unfinished but has some loose carpet down and could be used for a toy room/rec room very easily. I did find out that the woman that owns the place got divorced a couple of years ago and the house is too much for her and needs to get out from under it. Now I just need to get lucky and hope that she just wants to get what she owes on it and that I can guess what that number is. I am pretty sure that we're going to offer about 85% of the list price which would be around 133,000 I know I won't get it for that but like you guys said you can't lower your offer after the fact.
Well I put an offer in and it was $136,000 plus closing costs. We will see what happens in the next 24 hrs. My realtor told me that this is the first offer in on the house since its been on the market. Its been on the market since last April so I'm hoping that she owes less than that and just takes the offer to get it over with. But, I'm sure that she will counter the offer.... But, she did have a golf cart that I could see trying to throw into the deal if she counters.
