Putting In An offer

Everyone is saying since its a buyers market put in a really low offer. I'm just afraid that I will never get a house if I keep low balling...how low did you you go?

Also, say if a house is $369.000 what would be the lowest offer you would put? I just need some input since I'm new with this whole thing! I know I have to base it on what I can afford.

TIA Ladies!

Re: Putting In An offer

i found that most people are not willing to get much less then what they are listing. Really depends on the house/situation.

The house put offers on wouldn't accept more then 20K, 10-12K less seemed to be okay, 5-8K less seemed to be perfect.

Re: Putting In An offer

It really depends on the situation. We have a pricing range, so we are really looking for someone to bid within the range or close to the range.

You have to look at comps, what the house is actually worth. Do you need to do any work to the house or is it in move-in condition? If I didn't have to do any work, and I was looking at a house for $369K, I would probably bid $349-$355 to start, figuring they would counter and I would get the house for $359.

It's all a numbers game. FYI, shameless plug, I know you were looking in Levittown, my house is for sale and it's in your price range. You can check it out in my profile

Re: Putting In An offer

I always felt that it was acceptable to offer about 25k less than asking price when we were looking and no one appeared offended by our offers. In fact, we even went lower than that when we thought the house was worth less. In all cases, we always got a counter. Actually, for the house we ended up buying - we first offered 69k less than asking price and then came up to 49k less than asking for our final and best offer. They accepted.

All situations are different and in our case, the sellers already moved into their new house and were anxious. I also think they had overpriced the house in the first place.

What do you think the house is actually worth? I would determine that and then take 10k off that price and bid up to the amount you think its worth and see what happens.

Good Luck!

Re: Putting In An offer

We are a little bit of a different story - We only looked at homes in our price range - we found one at the TIP TOP of our price range and went to see it - FELL in LOVE and it was priced phenomenally- we figured we would offer $20k less, we finally ended up offering LIST price, they accepted... Closing Monday
Good luck in your house hunting!

Re: Putting In An offer

As always you should look at comps and offer a little less then what you think its worth, you can always negotiate up

Re: Putting In An offer

Honestly, although it is a buyers market...It truly depends how long the home has been on the market for, what the comps are, and if it is priced right...Dh and I got into a few bidding wars on two homes...including the one we bought...

The home is only as much as you want to spend...Remember that...

Also now with the Banks ordering their own appraisals, the homes are coming in somewhat less then what people are "purchasing"(your accepted offer price) them for (between 5k to 25k)...Which then brings you back to neogaitions... at times the seller can lower the price of your home or it will just make it that much harder to get a mortgage for that "purchase" price...because the bank doesn't think the house is worth it...

FM me in you need any help or guidance...

HTH



GOOD LUCK!!!

Re: Putting In An offer

THis is true! if the home is priced right, sellers are getting asking. i got 4K less than asking b/c it was priced correctly.

look up the house on listingbook (if you aren't connected to listingbook, FM me the mls |#) This will give you the Days on Market as well as if there were any price reductions. I find this to be REALLY important info when making an offer...

If you have that info, it will give you more leverage. Let's say a house is on the market for just a few days, and priced according to true value... you will see it go for close to the selling price. if it's been on the market for a while, make a low-ball offer.

i hope this made sense. FM me the mls if you are not on listingbook, i will be happy to look it up for you.

Re: Putting In An offer

Thank you so much everyone! House hunting isnt the most fun! lol

I'm glad i have a place to ask all thse questions!

Thanks again!!

Re: Putting In An offer

my REA told us we should offer around (at least) 15k less than asking price in this market.

Re: Putting In An offer

we were outbid on 3 different houses before we found ours! If houses are priced right, adn are in good condition they are flying off the market- there is such crap out there that the good ones are going- and FAST! I think everyone who keeps saying it's a buyers market has put false expectations of getting houses really cheap- when in fact most are going for right around asking if not over asking! 2 we lost went over asking! I couldn't believe it! Our house sold really quick too! we listed it in March figuring that we wanted to move within a year- and expecting it to sit on the market for a year- and it went in under 45 days!

I say offer what you think it's worth based on other comps in the area and for the contidiotn the house is worth. If you super low-ball (like a few did to us, lie $80 under! ha ha), we didn't even "entertain" their offer with a counter- my realtor hung up on them!

GOOD LUCK-!

Re: Putting In An offer

from our experience things that are nice and priced good usually don't last long and there are usually multiple bidders - we've gotten outbid a few times

there will also be houses that are ridiculously overpriced and sellers refuse to come down to market value and are convinced they can sell for 05,06 prices

best thing you can do is look at the comps - and base your offer off the current market value/comps - you don't want to OVER pay and you also want to give a realistic offer

good luck!