What would YOU offer?

This is our first time looking for a home. We live in Virginia, looking to buy in a beautiful area of MD. There is a great townhome we LOVE that is listed at 299.

We are told that a few people have offers in as far as this one realtor knows, and it prob won't sell below asking. However we are tempted to offer less...our price point is prob more around 280 but we do know this home at 299 would be a steal.

Could it hurt to offer 280?? Its been on the market for 60 days. We also have 20% down. Don't know if this matters. I am so so confused!!!!!!

Re: What would YOU offer?

We were kind of in the same situation.

We saw a house we loved, there were already a few offers on it. We knew the asking price was very fair considering all that the house had.

We decided that we really wanted this house and if there was any chance for us to get it we had to be aggressive, so we offered $10 above asking price lol

We had the highest offer so we got the house.

If you want it that badly what is $10,000 in the grand sceme of things

Good luck

Re: What would YOU offer?

The harm in offering the 280 is that they could look at your offer and immediately turn it down. If they already have offers for that or more, they may not even want to negotiate with you.

That being said, if 280 is the absolute max that you can comfortably go, then that is what you should offer. 10 or 15k is not that much per month over the life of the mortgage, but only you can decide what you can pay each month.

Another thing that could happen is you offer 280 and they reject it, if the other offers fall through, they may be more open to that price in a month or 2 months, but you run the risk of loosing the place to someone else paying more.

Can you find out how high the other offers were?

Re: What would YOU offer?

If the house is already a steal at 299, I really doubt you will get it at 280. And what's worse, if there are other offers, they probably won't give you guys a second chance to up your offer since it will be easier for them to deal with someone who already has a higher offer on the table.

If you really love it, and can afford it, I would offer the 299.

Re: What would YOU offer?

even with a "buyers" market typically things are not going less then listed price if they are listed well. I would offer the max, say if your paying closing cost, putting 20% down and if they come back be prepared with a bit higher amount you can do.

Re: What would YOU offer?

We were just in same situation. Saw a house at $299 - had been on and off market since Oct 07 - went back on market end of May at $299 - had started at $399 when first went on market. We knew this house was a steal for the house and city that it's in and for what it will be worth when market rebounds. They had five offers on house which they rejected - they even rejected $291! We were willing to pay asking or even a little over but didn't want a bidding war. Our agent spoke to theirs (knows him) - told us he knew they'd accept $295 and that's what we bid - our offer was accepted 6 hours later so my guess is that they did not go back to anyone else and see if they wanted to raise their offer.
If you want it and you know it's a "steal" as we did, I would try and find out what they want and bid that, if you can afford it.

Re: What would YOU offer?

has your realtor pulled the comparables for that area? ours did and we based our offer on those plus the condition of the house.

if i may ask, what area of MD are you looking in? 270 corridor?

Re: What would YOU offer?

Re: What would YOU offer?

if I LOVED the home, it was a steal at asking price, had multiple offers and most likely won't sell below asking then i would offer asking or VERY close to it.

Re: What would YOU offer?

275 and see what happens
Good Luck!

Re: What would YOU offer?

Re: What would YOU offer?

we saw houses we loved that were just 10-15 above our max.....but our max is a max for a reason and we just won't go above it....for us our max price is already pushing it....we are buying a house on one salary and we want to live as comfortable as possible, we want our mortgage to be like our rent payment so that when our expenses get higher year by year (gas, taxes, groceries, kids, etc.) we'll still be comfortable - it helps that we are also looking out of state....we offered 215k on a house and they countered at 225k - the house is amazing but for us we felt we were already pushing it at 215k so we had to walk away....it s-u-c-k-s but we are trying to be very responsible and conservative with our money....especially b/c the real estate market is in the gutter right now - we can buy this year and the value could still go down before it goes up again - another motivating factor to spend as little as possible...

if you can swing it then go for it - in the area we are looking its pretty competitve as far as buyers go - there are a lot of people trying to buy and not a lot of good houses on the market - so you really have to make a good offer to get something, especially when the price is low....we've been outbid twice already - so i agree with the advice to offer asking or even $10 - $1000 above.....we lost out on a listing that we offered 1k above listing on b/c of a higher offer

Re: What would YOU offer?

Re: What would YOU offer?

What are the comps for the area? I think a 5-10% is negociatable. Maybe including the closing costs with 5% down. But you really need the comps in the area. If comps are $300-320 then you might risk to be completely rejected on your offer with no negociation at all. And if there is indeed other offers, you might have to offer full price. Are you willing to lose the house and can you live with that?

Message edited 7/13/2009 11:02:04 AM.

Re: What would YOU offer?

If new construction is going for $285 I think an offer of $280 is reasonable. I would let the agent know that is your absolute highest when you make the offer so they know you aren't looking to negotiate