When we bought our last home around 1997 (on the East Coast), the seller (a Builder, spec home) was asking 180K. We offered $145K, about 20% under their asking price. Now, we aren’t in any kind of bubble area, so we were dealing with what is probably normal pricing. The realtor told us it was an insult to the seller. I said “what do I care, I don’t live with them and they aren’t going to be paying my mortgage.”. The realtor took them the offer. The builder countered with $155K. We liked that number, but we countered with they pay the closing costs. I was like, what the heck. The realtor said “Sellers never pay closing costs in this price range.”. I was like, I don’t care, I want closing costs. I had gone to the county, found out when the builder got his final inspection. I knew how long the home had been sitting on the market. Knew that he was paying his construction loan and hoped he was hungry. He accepted our contract. As someone said above, you can always raise your offering price, but you can’t lower it once the countering starts. Go REALLY low on the first offer. Say 20% below what would be a non-bubble value and work up from there. If the seller wants to sell, they will start dealing. I am still blown away that people ever get into a bidding war for a home. It’s like Ebay I guess, they just don’t want to lose and go crazy. I think sometimes people could have built new homes for what they ended up paying for an older home after the smoke cleared from the bidding war.
