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We are currently looking to purchase a house. We have been renting a house from immediate family and have been paying the mortgage, taxes and insurance which totals $2300.00 a month. We would like to purchase our own home and have been pre qualified. We have found a few that we like, so I have checked the recent neighborhood sales (on mlsli) and found most of the ones for sale are priced WAY above what the houses have actually sold for in the area. We would like to make an offer but don't want to go so low that we offend the homeowners. However we don't want to over pay for a house either. We are looking at asking prices of $319,000 and under but a lot of houses in the area are actually closing around $265,000 to $285,000.
I am in the same situation and renting now. I would start with 10 to 15 percent but that's me. If it fails ask the agent for a counteroffer. I have gotten a few counteroffer which was much better then I thought. But I'm still looking I think the summer will have lots more comming.
Don't worry about offeding the homeowner. Offer what you can afford to pay. Otherwise you'll be living in a house you can't afford as your taxes and HO insurance go up, all in the name of making someone you'll never see again feel good about themselves. I got an offer last year $80K below asking...I was not offended, I just said "NO". THe only thing I asked my realtor was if there was some negative feedback, and there wasn't, but the people were paying cash and that's what they had. Still no.
As a seller, I disagree. Look at comps, see if the house is priced fairly. And the lower the price the less wiggle room. Offering 700 on an 800k house is less insulting than offering 300 on a 400k house.
The housing market seems to be very interesting right now. Many houses on the market that are priced for the homeowner to "break even." But you need to focus on what the value is and not what the homeowner wants. Don't worry about hurting people's feeling, because if your doing it right you will push them out of their comfort level.
There seems to be a huge disconnect from where the houses are listing to where they are actually selling. But, focus on what price the houses are selling for in the area you seek. And watch out for prices that are set to move the house. I've seen some bidding wars in the year that we've been searching.
"There seems to be a huge disconnect from where the houses are listing to where they are actually selling. But, focus on what price the houses are selling for in the area you seek. And watch out for prices that are set to move the house. I've seen some bidding wars in the year that we've been searching."
This is so true and exactly what we have been seeing. Once in a while we see a house priced within 10k of what the market seems to be at, and then they are in contract within a few weeks. Otherwise houses seem to be $25k to $30k above what mlsli is showing in actual sales prices.
A few homeowners have mentioned how much they have put into their homes over the past 20 years they expect to get the dollar amount back out.....and now their roof and burner are 15 years old. Great!
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