Is there such thing as

Offering less than the asking price?

Now i know it exists but to people actually do it anymore?

Re: Is there such thing as

yes. in all of the houses we bid on, we put a bid of at least 4-5% less than what the sellers were asking. of course they countered. on the house we finally are in contract on, we bid $20,000 less than asking, and ended up getting it for $10,000 less. hope that helps.

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We did, we started 14k under asking and settled on 6k under...

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We plan on it - I hope it works in our favor!

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we bought our house 3 years ago and bid 10 dollars more that what they were asking. We did it b/c they were asking 239,990 and $10 more would make it an even 240K. We KNEW the house wouldn't last at that price and didn't want it to get away from us. They ended up having 5 other bids (all on the 1st day the house was up for sale) and we won!

I don't regret it at all! The other houses we looked at in the past we bid lower to see what the homeowners would do- but it never worked out fo rus partly b/c we jsut weren't that interested in the houses.

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It depends on the house. If it is a really good house at a good price, you may have to overbid. We saw our house the very first day it was shown and we were 1 of 7 bids that first day. We bid over the asking price and won.

If a home has been on the market for a few weeks and not grabbed right away, you have a better chance of bidding below asking price.

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I got my house for about $40K less (I think about 6.5%) than the reduced asking price. But I think they had the house too much above market at the time. Plus the owners were very anxious to sell since they were moving out of state and wanted to get their children settled in to new schools.

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We actually bid about 20k less than the asking price even though the house was on the market for like 3 days and is in a very desirable area...believe me, we were desperate for this house!

Luckily, the house was for sale by owner and she wanted to avoid a bidding war (so she said). We came up 7k (our max) after she asked for more. It looked like we were being rejected and we accepted the fact and refused to go up even though she asked. In the end, we got the house at that price (13k LESS than the asking price).

I don't think I would ever bid over the asking price--you never know what "bargain" you could be missing; plus, I think realtors create an artificial demand and pressure everyone for more $ when it's unnecessary to get the deal closed. You can always raise your offer can't you? Just my opinion.

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We bid $20K less on our house 5 years ago. The seller wanted to bump us up $10K more, which we said we'd agree on after the inspection. Well, after the inspection, held our bid at $20K less and we got the house.

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We started at 10k less, but ended up settling for almost the asking price.

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we did!

we offered 15k less than asking and ended up paying 10K less. it was also an estate sale and i believe the family was looking to sell quickly, but it worked!

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Out here in CO no one offers the asking price, its not even a sellers market right now. At least not out here.
In NY I couldn't imagine offering over the asking price with prices being as high as they are to begin with.

Re: Is there such thing as

Message edited 1/30/2009 1:26:57 PM.

Re: Is there such thing as

If you put up a strong offer with excellent financials... you can offer something less than asking.

If they like your financials... they will counter.

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A little over a year ago we bought our house - we made an offer that was $30K below asking price, and ended up settling on $10k below asking price - this was for a house that was only on the market for one day, so I'm suprised we were able to get away with it!

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It can't hurt to offer less - especially if you have all your finances in place and are ready to go. Sometimes an owner will go lower if it means a quick, hassle free transaction.

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Another reason folks sell in a hurry is if they are being re-located.

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we bid 55k below the asking price on our home in contract, and agreed on 25k below asking price.

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we bid $19K under asking, and settled at $14K under.