Question on Buying A House - How Much Do You Offer? - Do You Offer More or Less?

You offer lower. that is way it is played. Just like buying a new car. If the house need a roof tell then you will pay 88 and they put on the roof. stuff like that.

Insult the seller??? That is what real estate agents say all the time.. you don't want to insult the seller... well you got to look at the market. Today's market I'm sorry but if they want to sell their house they will have to come down on the price. You got to look at the houses listed in the area and then what they have sold for recently... a good agent will tell you what houses in the neighborhood sold for. If they don't find another agent. A lot of people selling their houses bought at the bubble when times where very good so they will not get that back many times if they must move during these hard times. You need to look at structural problems... so many times these sellers have dressed up their house to sell but I have found foundation issues and roof issues and the fact there is all old windows. You joke that you can't get a house under $100,000 but in my area you can get a very good one for that price. In fact I put an offer in for only $55,000 on one house. The house looked picture perfect with pergo flooring and new carpet and new paint on walls new tub and toilets and real clean... the down fall the foundation was starting to crumble. The roof was 20 year old, and all windows were old... It would cost me $15,000 to $20,000 to do just these main necessities and there was no way with how small a yard this house came with and the street it was on that I could get $70,000 to $75,000 out of it. If the work you see costs more than you can get after doing the work you do not want the house. It was hard to walk away because it had a lot I wanted but a lot was what I'd want to rip out anyways... they put carpet over the most beautiful wood floors and put the prego flooring above the old flooring and cut antique beautiful carved oak doors to fit it... made me want to cry. The house is still on the market today 6 months later and I still have given them the best offer they have ever gotton. Don't be pulled in by agents saying you need to jump now. They are out to make money too... this of course depends on the area you are looking in. Some areas the market is still booming but for most it is on the decline. Look on how long the average house has stayed on the market. Start at eh accessed value of a house but do keep in mind that most assessments are made based on the outward appearance. So don't think if it's assested at that that that is what it is worth... you need to be willing to walk away otherwise you will be taken advantage of. As far as selling your house... clean is the game... no bright colors keep it neutral and staging very important. You don't want to over price your house if you want to sell now.. If you can wait to sell try for more and be open to offers... but don't be so high it will scare away buyers. Look at your area, go to other open houses and don't believe what the agents say... it's all business. Some convince their home owners that their house is worth more than it is and when they don't get it they deny offers they should have taken... like the offer I gave that the owners now asked if I would come back to it but I've moved on to better houses at what I offered them. You don't want to deny $150,000 because you wanted $155,000 just to find out 6 months down the line that no one else will offer better than $145,000. So really do the research... do not depend on agents. Bad agents are the reason why houses are staying on the market for years in my area. Always low ball when offering... They can counter... the likely hood of a second offer before you can get in the next are low in this market (again I dont' know yours), but you can always find another and I'm glad some of mine that I really had my heart set on fell through. They required too much work and I got smarter as I went along.

we always try to get them to knock off a 1,000$ or 2 .If they want to sell they caome down if they dont you acan offer up a little usually they take the 2nd bid

[i]This is a very complicated question... how much to offer on a house. First things first... find out WHY the house is being sold... are the people just moving on up to a larger house... do they NEED to move because of a job sending them somewhere else, divorce, forclosure, etc.... If the people NEED to sell the house then you can low-ball them... any offer that has not been trumped by a higher offer is a legit offer... and even a lower offer can be a legit offer as well. If you have found THE HOUSE then I would still advise to offer less but still do your homework... if you are bidding against yourself and the people in there NEED to move there is no reason giving them their asking price... if there are other parties involved you need to know how far you are willing to go (how much you are willing to pay) and then go back and forth with them. I had a house that the guy wanted what he wanted... it was a great price but I still wanted a couple grand off... he wouldn't budge on the price and I was the one that lost out so you need to know. Also have your real estate agent do a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) of the neighborhood so you know that you are not 'getting taken' and that you are paying the right amount of money for the area where the house is! Hope that helps a little[/i] Thanks Zelo

i dont know if this will help. you need a really honest good real estate person. i got the best last time. but this is a mobile home with built on florida room. they wanted $ 29,000/ he said offer less. i offered 25. my bank stepped in and said after the appraisal and inspection it was only worth 19. and then only if they fixed a couple small things. they did and finally came down to 19. but then i found out that there was 3,000 closing! i said forget it, i cant pay that and they offered to split closing. any way, come to find out it was sitting here for 7 yrs on the market. it might help to know how long they've been trying to sell. the bad thing for me is, id had to sell a 140,000 house for 67,000. because it was a rush. :(( not cool, huh?

Hi schulzie, I bilt (not by myself...) my hause, so I pay for what i put in it, but in your case i would say that you have to offer from 10 to 15 percent less that the value is..15 is maybe better so that after you meet the seller by 10% that i think is good for both..have a nice day you to Nun

The answer is - it depends. If the house is 100% perfect but the market doesn't say $100K, I wouldn't offer that; if the house needs repairs, I would offer $100,000 then put in a credit request for all repairs needed. Odds are they put those up for more than it worth, so you need to know the market. If the houses in that neighborhood are selling for less, then you should offer less. If the like your offer, they will counter it.

I see that you already received very good responses, but I thought I would still put my 2 cents in. When we found our house we wanted it. We knew that there hadn't been any offers and that it had been on the market for a while, so we were in a good position. My real estate agent told me that the house was orginally X amount it had gone down by $17K since it had been on the market. We offered even less then that. Our offer was $7K less then the current asking price PLUS the seller was to pay ALL closing costs. He accepted the offer with the stipulation that we take the house as is. Which was fine with us with the stipulation that we were getting a home inspection and if any thing was to cost over $10K we would not be taking the house. Every one was happy. Honestly I think I could have even done better then that BUT oh well. Whats done is done. My suggestion to you is be sure your real estate agent is NOT the sellers agent as the sellers agent is for the seller not for the buyer. Make sure your agent is knowledgable in all things like how long has the house been on the market and what did they originally list the house at. Have fun I can't wait to get a new house ours is going up for sale SOON!

You need to get the house thouroughly checked out first and then get a valuation from an expert in the field. A house's value will be reflected in the position, current trends like interest rates and the value of the dollar. Is the home structurally sound, are there any visible repairs necessary, does it need a paint job or money spent on it to bring it up to standard? What are the houses worth in that area? Does this home fit in with other houses in the area? (If it's a better home in a poorer neighbourhood, that will lower the value - if it's a poorer home in a better neighbourhood that gives you an good incentive to spend money to improve it). Never, ever, pay more than you can afford...or borrow more than you can afford to repay...factor a margin of error into your repayments so you can stay ahead of any interest rate increases and come out way ahead and saving thousands because you are repaying your loan more quickly. Even $10 a week can make a huge difference. Leave emotions out of the equation. If you can't get a reasonable response from the vendor, be prepared to walk away. I would offer a fraction below what the house is "worth"...on $100000, offer say 9o,000. Be honest and fair and if you think the agent or vendor is not being up front with you...walk away. Make sure you get pest inspections done and building inspections done. That way if repairs are needed you can stipulate that you want the work done or that those repairs can come off the purchase price. It will cost you for the inspections but it's worth it. I'm sure there are sites on-line that can give you better advice than I can. I was ripped off when I bought this house because I trusted my agent and he didn't really care....I overpaid for this house. I've been cheated before too when I have sold and bought houses. I trust people and I'm honest. Unfortunately, not everyone is like that. Good luck.

Let me cite an experience I had about buying a horse. A house is not a horse, I know but it is such a good analogy. My friend asked me to look around for good deals on horses and I found two good ones for thirty-seven thousand pesos. He got very excited and came over on the overnight ferry to close the deal. He came dressed up like a cowboy dude and showed his enthusiasm for horses and how he wanted to really buy those two horses. One look at him and the horse owner said those horses were not for sale, that his son was mistaken about those horses which completely flabbergasted my friend who now proceeded to be reeled in by an expert angler. He ended up paying sixty thousand pesos for a couple of horses I could easily have bought for him at thirty-five thousand pesos. Go figure.

I think you should always offer slightly less than the asking price. My house now I only offered 4,000 less than the asking price but I probbly could have gotten it like for 10,000 less. I wanted to offer a fair price but I could have probably offered 5,000 less and not felt guilty about it. In today's market I'm sure you could offer almost whatever you want to.

I think you should put a budget for yourself, if it's over the budget too much, then better don't get it. If the house condition is very good and the price just over your budget a bit, I think it's worth to buy. You have to consider overall about the house when you buy the house.

I would offer anywhere between $10,000 - $15,000 thousand less than the asking price. This gives you some room to increase the offer if necessary. With the market as bad as it is tight now, you may get lucky and the seller accept your first offer! Good Luck!

my husband and i have purchased several properties because his work requires him to be relocated in about 4-5 years.he doenst want to rent.he purchase a house then sell it when we need to move again.of course, u must gain profit from selling a property. thats the mai purpose why one buys...to sell for profit..how we do it? find out the existing lot rate in the area. i just dont know if this goes the same in your place...like in our village, lots costs,$150/square meter...our property is 300 sq mtrs...we compute.thats for the lot.then,we estimate the value of the house...so the house must be in a very good condition...we see to it the the price is reasonable but we still have profit...we have a house rented too...you can earn more if you'd rent it out,though must be very strict with rules to maintain the house well

That is always the Good question indeed. We are in that very process right now, as we have our Condo up for Sale, and have looked at and found something we like. We went and looked at it a second time, and going to be talking with our Realtor in a couple of hrs. about making an offer, etc. and finding out what we need to do next. So, I will be reading some of the many responses myself as well.

lower of corz to save