I have bought two REO condos and made offers on about 10.
From what I can determine, the listing prices I looked at represented a lowest acceptable price with the bank basically conducting a reverse auction, lowering the price every 2 weeks until they had an acceptable offer. If the initial price is “right”, it will get bid up. Low offers didn’t even get a response, never mind a counter. Obviously some will work differently.
I used a buyers agent and thought most of sellers agents were on the up and up. There was one that sold for less than my cash offer though…
The one thing that the sellers agents seemed to want was confidence that I could and would actually complete the sale quickly and with a minimum effort on their part. Appraisals are a big unknown. It may be hard to compete with borrowed money and you can’t go too high or it won’t appraise.
You need to decide if you want to get the best deal or the best house for you to live in. In the long run, paying a few % extra is no big deal if you get a house that really works for you. If you just want the best deal, start writing offers you would be happy with on everything you think you could live in,
