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However, I believe that three weeks in the market, there's no way a buyer would allow 15% off unless they are in a dire situation. They would counter offer, and then that's that.
My recommendation is to bid, but don't expect much at all, and fully expect to be laughed out of the room.
No offense taken, I welcome the imput. I see your point about it only being listed for three weeks but we are talking about a house 100+ years old. Read JerseyJames post right above yours, there is a lot of risk on my end. It could turn into a money pit. Of corse I plan on hiring a well qualified inspector and plan on shelling out a few extra bucks to make sure it is thoroughly inspected. I do expect a counter offer but I will not go beyond what I feel is fair.
I know the place needs at least $20,000 in repairs. So I see it as I'm taking 10% off the list to bring it down to $612,000 and the $20,000 in repairs brings it to $592,000. What do you think would be a the right amount to offer?
No offense taken, I welcome the imput. I see your point about it only being listed for three weeks but we are talking about a house 100+ years old. Read JerseyJames post right above yours, there is a lot of risk on my end. It could turn into a money pit. Of corse I plan on hiring a well qualified inspector and plan on shelling out a few extra bucks to make sure it is thoroughly inspected. I do expect a counter offer but I will not go beyond what I feel is fair.
I know the place needs at least $20,000 in repairs. So I see it as I'm taking 10% off the list to bring it down to $612,000 and the $20,000 in repairs brings it to $592,000. What do you think would be a the right amount to offer?
This is a buyers market... why even consider the property? There are dozens of other homes with far less risk in the same price range, what's the upside that this house has the other don't? Either you get a risk adjusted price on the home (i.e. a LOT cheaper) or you go to a home with little to no risk. I'd bid 450 or so and tell them why. Let the offer sit for a month or two and see what happens.
As for assessments.. that varies widely... some towns do assessments differently, my home in Pompton Lakes accesses on my taxes at about 1/2 of what it's on the market for. Homes that are 3 or 4 years old and assessed at original purchase price before the bubble have assessments 20 - 40% higher than what they are on the market for. The tax assessment doesn't tell you much unless you are comparing homes of similiar age within a city and even that's a crap shoot.
No offense taken, I welcome the imput. I see your point about it only being listed for three weeks but we are talking about a house 100+ years old. Read JerseyJames post right above yours, there is a lot of risk on my end. It could turn into a money pit. Of corse I plan on hiring a well qualified inspector and plan on shelling out a few extra bucks to make sure it is thoroughly inspected. I do expect a counter offer but I will not go beyond what I feel is fair.
I know the place needs at least $20,000 in repairs. So I see it as I'm taking 10% off the list to bring it down to $612,000 and the $20,000 in repairs brings it to $592,000. What do you think would be a the right amount to offer?
You can rationalize all you want, and you're probably right, and who knows, 575 could be too much for this house (depends on how big the land is, do you know how much there is?), but the sellers just listed this and they truly believe it is worth 699 and they think they are going to be walking away from this with 699 in their pockets. So your chances are slim to none at this point. Usually sellers need to go through all the price reductions themselves. But go for it. Who knows what could happen?
If the house has been in the family for three generations, I would say your chances are even less. Is this family one of those oldtimer families? They probably have plenty of cash and time to wait. Or they'll just keep it themselves. They could just be playing to see what they can get for it.
My advice, I wrote before, offer your 575 if that's what you are really willing to pay. Tell the agent it's your best and final offer. I agree with everyone else on the "As Is part," you probably don't want to do that. Don't give your reasons, it's irrelevant and the sellers don't care and they'll just argue back with you. Don't spend too much time on this, just fill out a standard offer and let it go. You might as well write this one on a napkin.
We made a 20% lowball on what was practically a tear down and we basically got called white trash by their agent and who the heck did we think we were, thinking we could afford to live in "X Town." We had all these reasons, like a list of repairs which was supposed to be justification for our price and they just argued back that none of those repairs needed to be done. Their house was perfect in their eyes, even though the husband was literally dying in nursing homes by this point. In the end, they got more than our lowball so they were right to reject our offer. So be it. In the end, I'm glad they rejected our offer and really, I think there was some force protecting us from buying that dump.
No offense taken, I welcome the imput. I see your point about it only being listed for three weeks but we are talking about a house 100+ years old. Read JerseyJames post right above yours, there is a lot of risk on my end. It could turn into a money pit. Of corse I plan on hiring a well qualified inspector and plan on shelling out a few extra bucks to make sure it is thoroughly inspected. I do expect a counter offer but I will not go beyond what I feel is fair.
I know the place needs at least $20,000 in repairs. So I see it as I'm taking 10% off the list to bring it down to $612,000 and the $20,000 in repairs brings it to $592,000. What do you think would be a the right amount to offer?
If the house has been in the family for three generations, it's fully paid off (presumably) and therefore, the seller is in the catbird seat and doesn't have to negotiate that much.
If the house uses oil heat or a septic system, I would run away from the property. Old oil heat or old septic = bad, bad news.
However, if you're totally in love with the property, bid what you want and see if they counter. If you find the counter to be too much, walk away and keep looking. If they don't get a lot of action on the house, the rep may come back to you down the road.
Though I want to point out that if you're looking in Central NJ, there are plenty of newer props at 600K range in awesome towns with awesome school systems. I know for a fact that 600K would get you a great property in towns like South Brunswick and East Brunswick. (both of which have phenomenal school systems)
I sincerely appreciate everyones imput. But no one has really anwsered my question on how much they would offer. I would like to add that my realtor told me there is room for negotiation.
To anwser nemmert's question " Whats the upside that this house has that the others don't"? My anwser is, It has a guest house that I can have my parents stay in that will give us both plenty of space and privacy beyond the typical "mother/daughter" set ups.
House is listed at $679,000 its an old house that needs work at least $20,000. How much would you offer and what price would you expect to settle at?
As far as probability of getting it, the further you go from a 10% "lowball" IMO, the lower your chances of the offer getting accepted IMO. So if you offer 600 (roughly 10% below ask), you probably have a much better shot than 575 or 550. Psychologically, anything in the 600s is going to be easier for them to accept than dipping into the 500s.
Doesn't mean it's worth 600, or 575, or 500 for that matter, we don't know that. You have to look at the comps in that town and try to figure that out.
Are you sure it only needs 20K of work? That sounds low for an old house that you were going to offer an As Is contract for? Unless you can do the work yourself?
every town is different. Does your realtor have any suggestion on pricing? Is the listing price for this kind of property fair to current market in the area?
In the town we are looking and for the properties we had presented offers this year, 4 out of 5 are over listing price....
However, anything could happen. Just present your offer and see how the seller response. You have nothing to lose for preseting an offer.
I would offer what you originally planned. That is almost like the offer I placed on my house. They wanted 579 I offered 450 and we met at 5. Give it a shot the worst scenario is a NO. Don't listen to the real estate agent that tells you your offer is to low. They want to sell for more because they make more and they keep the values higher. Each case is totally different. Sometimes it's an estate sale and the siblings just want money, sometimes it's pre foreclosure and or short sale. If it's old an needs a ton of work theres a good reason to offer a low price
No offense taken, I welcome the imput. I see your point about it only being listed for three weeks but we are talking about a house 100+ years old. Read JerseyJames post right above yours, there is a lot of risk on my end. It could turn into a money pit. Of corse I plan on hiring a well qualified inspector and plan on shelling out a few extra bucks to make sure it is thoroughly inspected. I do expect a counter offer but I will not go beyond what I feel is fair.
I know the place needs at least $20,000 in repairs. So I see it as I'm taking 10% off the list to bring it down to $612,000 and the $20,000 in repairs brings it to $592,000. What do you think would be a the right amount to offer?
The comps (and they need to be sold comps) are the only thing that matters here. If your offer is backed by genuine comps, it should stand. If they don't have comps to support their price, no-one will buy it for their list (not in this market).
Does your initial bid need to include all of the cost of repairs, or can you have some of them done by the seller post-inspection ?
To be honest, I'm not sure why you would want a house that could potentially be a money pit because it has a guest house. Do you see your parents that often? I mean, with the money you could be saving, it would be just as easy to put them up in a very nice hotel 3-4 times a year.
One thing to consider is that just because you have big plans for a space doesn't mean they'll come to fruition. We have a space in house that I envisioned as a "Man Room" - but we essentially use it for storage.
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