how much to offer advice (Chicago, Lockport: comparable sales, for sale, houses)

[giazma]

Our best friends live in Lockport and we are from there as well. We are hoping to sell our current and move back there asap. The house NEXT door to my best friends is again for sale and from my friend talking to her she is despereate (divorce sale) to get out....The built in 2003 and paid 240 ish....
They first had it on the market for 360, for 6 months, now it is down to 318 still overpriced for this home, it is all siding, no fin basement, 2200 (i have 2600 now) white appli, vinyl, pretty BLAH compared to the comps, however we love the neigjhbors and me and hubby have a knack for doing renos...so being blah is okay with me......Question is....If we sell our home and shes ask 318,900 and I KNOW she is close to losing it anyway,,,,,what would you offer....(taxes are 8k there!)...I dont want to be a witch but its not my DREAM home to begin with, but it would work....please dont say "offer 5 dollars" I am looking for advice not a laugh! ~

[bigman123]

Generally, I would say offer 15K-20K over what is owed on the property. Of course to be more precise, the appraised value would also need to be known.

Good luck.

[cmoscinski]

Talk to her and ask her what her bottom line is what she would like to walk away with. Have your Realtor run comps and go in with a fair market price, as you said based on the condition.

Tell her you are interested but the comps your Realtor gave you reflects $xxx.xx. You would like to offer her $xxx.xx amount of dollars (minus -3% based on current market conditions) as a price and would she consider it?

You have to make her look at it this way, she can either continue to keep it in this (very slow) market and "lose it all" or walk away and at least make something by selling it to you.

Won't hurt to ask, and you can ask!

[giazma]

i dont think that she is gonna give me her info so easily, she still is gonna try to make some money....My friend who lives next door to her just knows that she is stuggling on her last leg....But I dont know for sure is there some where i can find that info

Also, what would YOU offer if you were me?

[NYrules]

I would say start at $279,000 and then come to some sort of comprimise. You might end up at about $300,000 in this case. But those taxes!!! Holy crap! What a rip! Typical Lockport. Just keep on buildin them rooftops. No industry to take the burden off the homeowners, just keep building more houses!

[355express]

Offer 290K, you may get it for 300k.

[giazma]

thats why i need a deal of a house! The rest of the mort is gonna be my taxes! I am in a bigger house now in west joliet and pay 5k but i only paid 260 for my house...I dont feel bad low ballin them, but i am sure they were victims (as I am) or should i say dummy who did a cash out refi last year!!! So they may very well owe the enitre askin price,,,,,where can i find that out?

[sbd78]

Originally Posted by giazma

thats why i need a deal of a house! The rest of the mort is gonna be my taxes! I am in a bigger house now in west joliet and pay 5k but i only paid 260 for my house...I dont feel bad low ballin them, but i am sure they were victims (as I am) or should i say dummy who did a cash out refi last year!!! So they may very well owe the enitre askin price,,,,,where can i find that out?

Not sure if you can find out what she owes on the house, but you can find out how much she paid for it on the Tribune website if you know the address of the house:
Chicago Tribune - Illinois Property Transfers
Knowing what she paid might help you to know how low of an offer you can make.

[NUman]

I personally would look at the comparable sales in the last 24 months and the average should be your offer and subtract $10,000 or include closing costs. My wife and I bought our home in 1995 in a divorce sale for $357,000 and it was listed at $500,000. It is now worth over $1,000,000. the sellers did not feel taken advantage of as they only paid around $100,000. In fact they were very nice they let us close earlier than the contract stated.

[aragx6]

Are you sure you want to live next door to the best friend? Haha! (Guess it's better than next door to mother)

I wouldn't worry about anything other than what the house is worth. I understand feeling bad for them to a certain extent, but I wouldn't want to get into a situation where I overpaid for a house because I didn't want the seller to lose money.

If it's worth less than they paid for it, that's horrible, but you still shouldn't pay more than its worth.