Offers? (2009, appraisal, agent, commission)

[MovingIL]

So, there are a couple of properties I like (but don't love), and would be willing to make an offer on. Problem is - both of them are overpriced by a good 25%. I have found fairly decent comps (in one case very good comps from the same complex) that would support my offer price. The house with the great comps was just listed and the owners are moving, the house with the decent comps has been listed without an offer for 3 months (the owners would like to move, but don't have to). The latter would be our preferred property. My agent says there is not much of a point in trying to make such a low offer - even though he acknowledges the properties are way overpriced.
Do we just give up on this market for now?? Listing prices are holding up, but not much is selling here. I am getting frustrated looking at homes that are not priced anywhere near where they should be based on the few recent comps we can find...

[Roselvr]

If you like the house make an offer. The owners will either be pissed or willing to try to negotiate.

We had one lowball that we tried to work but couldn't, then had 2 more offers that were under what we wanted but one ended up working out. Sure my hubby was insulted at first, but I talked to him and let him know it was a starting point, he then cooled off.

What do you have to lose?

fwiw, I looked for 7 months over 100 new & used houses and when I was ready to give up I found "the one".

[CrissCT]

Go ahead and make your offer but keep the attitude that you probably won't get these houses. We made offers on at least 4 houses that were overpriced and couldn't get anyone willing to deal. Big surprise those houses are all still for sale and they keep lowering the prices very slowly, but still not what they should be. We are currently trying for a short sale but again with the mindset of not getting attached since chances are slim it will work out. Good luck to you, as much as it is a "buyers market", we have had a difficult time.

[cobeachgirl]

I agree with all the PP. We made 2 offers on houses that were overpriced because we really liked them, but we knew it was a slim chance that they would come down to the more realistic price for the market. I think we looked at 85 houses in 2 months time and did finally find one that we now have under contract. It was priced right, so we toured it and made an offer within the first 24hrs that it was listed. It can happen, but I know it is very discouraging when the homes you like are somewhat unattainable. Our agent was watching very closely for us and as soon as this one was listed we were all over it. If you have time, you can wait out the short sale, or see if the other homes you like come down to the price you want to pay. Moral of the story- you just gotta keep looking til you find it.

[CrissCT]

Originally Posted by cobeachgirl

It was priced right, so we toured it and made an offer within the first 24hrs that it was listed.

I agree - the homes that are priced right are selling before we can even take a look at them!

[Rakin]

You might have your agent talk to them 1st about your low offer. If they are an absolute NO you will save a lot of time & effort.

If they turn down your low offer, don't get your feelings hurt or insulted. It's a business decision & maybe they can't go as low as you'd like.

[MovingIL]

Actually, we've looked at the history of both homes - and one home is owned outright (they've owned it for decades), and the other, where the owners are moving, owes way below what we would offer. I doubt that the home that was just listed would come down this fast, though (they had to do a lot of expensive maintenance in the 2 yrs the've owned the home)...We'll give it a few weeks.
The other one, where we don't have "perfect" comps - our agent agrees it is way overpriced; but he thinks it should sell for more than we are willing to pay (without giving us comps to back up what he says). He said he did talk to the listing agent 1.5 months ago, and supposedly they weren't interested. He is friends and in the same office with the listing agent and has a house for sale 3 doors down! So I am sure he would not make a good case for us unless we can convince HIM first (hence we've been searching for comps).
How much of a premium (%) is a detached home worth over an attached rowhouse/over a detached condo townhouse, other things equal?
How much do we deduct for having a LR/DR across the street from train tracks (including freight trains) with nice view of the trains passing by??

[MovingIL]

Any further suggestions on how to comp these features?
I know, I know, that's our realtor's job, but he is really not very helpful with comps (I am not throwing tens of thousands of dollars down the drain based on his intuition - when this high listing price certainly helps make his much larger and more expensive listing further from the tracks look like a bargain)

[njsocks]

We had just sold our house a few months ago. We had one lowball offer 75k lower than the asking price! We laughed....and were p'o'd all at the same time BUT we at least were kind enough to counter them and see if they would bite back. They did until we wouldnt meet them at what THEY wanted.
You have nothing to lose but make an offer. Sure, the realtor wants to make a big commission but he still has to present it to the sellers! whether it is insulting or not.
It is a buyer's market.

[adlnc07]

Originally Posted by MovingIL

How much of a premium (%) is a detached home worth over an attached rowhouse/over a detached condo townhouse, other things equal?
How much do we deduct for having a LR/DR across the street from train tracks (including freight trains) with nice view of the trains passing by??

IMHO, it's very hard to put exact dollar figures on things like this. Unless houses are exactly the same, determining price based on comps seems to be more of an art form than science. I will say that single family houses are usually only compared to other single family houses, not condos, townhouses or attached houses when appraised.

In my current neighborhood there are only 4-5 floorplans - so determining comps for my house is super easy. In my new neighborhood there are not an infinite number of floorplans, but there is quite a bit of variation in size, garage space, number of bedrooms, etc. The house I'm buying is similar in size to the house next door, which sold in January of this year. But, my house isn't on a corner lot, has a 1-car garage vs. no garage and is six years older than the neighbor's house. My house needs a fair bit of updating, including a new roof (this year) and HVAC. My purchase price is less than the neighbor's house, but the appraisal came in quite a bit higher. I haven't seen the other comps used yet so I don't know how the appraiser arrived at his amount - I was surprised at the number though.

Anyhow, I guess what I'm saying is in the end, a house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it and what the appraisal says it's worth (unless you're paying cash and don't care)!