Scott, you have probably moved into your new home already but I felt compelled to respond because others might look at this question and I get asked the same question frequently by Buyers these days. Others have already responded that "it depends" and I would agree with that answer. What does it depend upon?

1) The Seller's motivation - as a Buyer you probably will not know the true extent of the Seller's motivation without submitting an offer but the listing history and the condition of the home may guide you - a truly motivated Seller will be adjusting the price regularly, keeping the home in immaculate condition, and not having extensive showing restrictions.

2) Recent price change - a recent (within the past 2 weeks) price change will probably reduce the flexibility of the Seller.

3) Volume of showings in the past week or so - again, this may be difficult to determine but if the Selelr is seeing lots of activity, then they arer probably less likely to reduce the selling price - activity is a signal that the Buyers and Buyers Agents think the home is reasonably priced.

4) Financial flexibility/Net amount of offer to Seller - as I go from listing appointment to listing appointment, I see how many homes are mortgaged to the maximum - so although a Seller may love to sell, unless they have a large savings account to tap into, it is unlikely that a heavily mortgaged Seller is going to move much off of a list price if it means having to bring a large amount to the closing table (even if they are highly motivated to sell) simply because they have no way to make the closing occur. If the home is in poor condition, then you may also correctly surmise that the Seller probably does not have the financial means to update or repair it so they probably do not have the means to accept a much lower offer.

5) The competition - if a home is fairly priced relative to the competition, then there is no reason for a Seller to discount the list price by much - just because the home has been on the market for a period of time is not the reason to discount heavily - if you and your agent are unable to find any homes in the same neighborhood in similar condition for less, then it is probably attractively priced and if you want the home, then offer close to list price. In this analysis, the lot and the condition needs to be comparable. As an example, I have a listing that currently is more than $100,000 more expensive than another home in the same neighborhood with the exact same floor plan - I am confident that my listing will sell faster than the other home because the condition, upgrades, location, views, etc provide better value to a buyer than the other home even though it is more expensive.

So, time by itself is not a reason to provide a much lower offer - my experieince is that most sellers in today's market will continue to reduce the price by smaller increments (1-2%) over time before accepting an offer that is 10% or larger off of list price.

Scott - I hope you got the home you were looking for and thanks for asking the question.

Hi scott, It depends on the price of the home, Have your agent run the comps and suggest a price that will move your home. I would lower it for sure. Todays Buyers are looking for a deal and feel like they have the upper hand.

Thanks for the info...Hopefully I'll be back with how it turned out next week.

Scott, Lots of good information so far. In our market a leading real estate appraiser suggests that if the home does not even get an offer in the first 30 -45 days, they should reduce the price on average 10%. Hopefully your agent has a trusted compentent appraiser that can help determine what the price should be.

While all the answers thus far have been very true, accurate and in line with what any real estate professional should tell you, I'd remind you that price is not the only item in an offer and that in today's buyer's market you might also consider asking for your closing costs to be paid, improvements to be done to the property, or other similar concessions. You might not get them but you ought to at least ask.

An exact amount cannot be determined without knowing the specific property location and the surrounding market. Hopefully, you have a buyer broker working for you that can answer the questions you need to answer to determine an appropriate offer if less than asking price.

Typically the seller is more motivated at this point, but not always, but you could get more aggressive in your offer. How aggressive is the question. A lot of factors go into determining how much lower to offer. Some considerations should be is the house already priced below or above fair market value, did the sellers just recently do a price reduction, is it a strong buyers market where you are located, are there any factors in the sellers life that would lead to a distressed sell, is there a risk you could actually alienate the sellers with an insulting offer, etc....

The best answer I can give you without knowing the specifics, is if there are currently no other offers on the table or that you will be competing with go ahead offer what you feel is reasonable but leave room for a counter. Everyone likes to negotiate; both sellers and buyers. Don't go to the table with your best and final offer unless you are competing with another offer.

Good luck!

Your Realtor should take a look at the price history of the home. They may have started very high and slowly lowered the price as time has gone by.
Every market and every home would be different but I usually try to go down about 3% after 30 to 45 days.
Market conditions are huge in this decision, are there other homes that are in competition with this one? Have others sold for more or less? Does this subject property have an ammenity that others do not?

1) Look at the comps for the house in this area...that is the comps of what properties sold and for how much.
2) See how long they were on the market.
3) Look at the condition of the house in question.
4) Make an offer based on 1, 2, and MOSTLY 3, with your reasoning for the discounted offer with a rational reasoning. This way you negotiate based on facts..of condition and sales data, not because you just want to offer less because of days on the market.

Scott,
There is no standard formula. You must first know the current market conditions. Is 90 days on the market a long time for the area, or is it a fairly standard duration? You should also be looking at the list price history to see if there have been any adjustments/reductions made along the way. For instance, if the seller just reduced the price by $50,000 a week ago, I would surmise that an offer would need to be pretty darn close to the current list price to make a deal happen. Another variable is the length of time the seller has been in the home. If they purchased just a couple of years ago, they probably don't have the same equity as someone who has been in a property for 20 years. That might hamstring their ability to negotiate as loosely. Further, without comparing the list price to the recent comps and current competition, there is no way for an agent on these boards to know how close the list price of the property in question comes to reflecting true market value. Every property, seller and list price is unique, so you can't really follow any formula which says offer "x" off of list price after "y" days on the market. This is where a good buyer's agent will really earn his/her keep in helping you to secure the best value. Best of luck, and please come back to let us know how it goes.