Nassau – Making Offers on Homes. (Plainview, Syosset: real estate, rental, mortgage)

[DaSyce]

What should a potential buyer offer on a home? 15% less then asking price?

Looking at homes in Syosset, Plainview, Bethpage’s. Asking price in the $450-$560K.

Seems to me like the market isn’t in the favor for the seller and really not a whole lot better for the buyer. The way I see it is that buyers will probably lose money on property purchased since property has been dropping in value.

[TomMoser]

Offer what you believe is reasonable. You may also want to ask your real estate agent to show you comps of similar homes that have sold recently in the same neighborhood.

[Chrisk327]

I don't think you can make a generalization like that. Some homes are priced 15-20% above market, Others have priced aggressively to sell and are pricing at or slightly below market. I think that is true in any market. However, I would guess you have more priced over market now, however looking at Comps on similar houses and comparisons tell teh story.

[Elke Mariotti]

I agree, using one percentage for any and all offers is not appropriate. Not all houses are overpriced, so doing your homework, or having your Realtor do the homework, is the best approach to determining what the right offer is for any given property. Depending on how the home is priced, a reasonable offer can be anywhere from 3% to 15-20%.

Maybe you should work with a Buyer Broker, who represents only you, not the seller. They do all the homework, tell you what might be the best offer for YOU and will negotiate on your behalf. Any other Realtor really represents the financial interest of the Seller, even if (s)he takes you around and shows you homes. Most of the rest of the country only uses Buyer Brokers anyway, even upstate NY. There was a big push here in the late 90s early 2000s to go that route, but Long Island has been slow to change...

Originally Posted by Chrisk327

I don't think you can make a generalization like that. Some homes are priced 15-20% above market, Others have priced aggressively to sell and are pricing at or slightly below market. I think that is true in any market. However, I would guess you have more priced over market now, however looking at Comps on similar houses and comparisons tell teh story.

[Elke Mariotti]

I'm not sure what you mean by "buyers will probably lose money on property purchased..."

If you're talking about investment property, that's one thing. Timing and price have a big impact, which is why you do your homework and your number crunching before you even make an offer.

If you're talking about your primary residence, profit motive should be incidental. Owning your own home has not only emotional advantages but also other financial benefits (too much to go into here), not the least of which is that the mortgage and RE taxes are tax deductible and therefor bring the actual, out-of-pocket, cost of your mortgage down.

Of course if you're only staying for two or three years, for instance, you could end up "losing"... In that case, maybe a rental would be better, depending on your risk tolerance.

Prices on Long Island have been on such a tremendous upswing for so long, that a downward adjustment was inevitable. People have come to expect continuing increases and realistically, that can't happen. In the late 80s/early 90s we also had a correction. That's just economics.

JMHO

Originally Posted by DaSyce

What should a potential buyer offer on a home? 15% less then asking price?

Looking at homes in Syosset, Plainview, Bethpage’s. Asking price in the $450-$560K.

Seems to me like the market isn’t in the favor for the seller and really not a whole lot better for the buyer. The way I see it is that buyers will probably lose money on property purchased since property has been dropping in value.