Scott, I am a realtor in Florida so not sure about heating systems etc. Based on the way you are describing this property, it should be selling for land value only unless it has some historical value. Ask you realtor to give you land values in the neighborhood. Just a hint! I am encouraging buyers to put in offers, you never know what the seller is willing to accept! You have to start somewhere in this market... Good luck to you... there are some great buys out there so I hope you can settle on something.

Did your realtor do comps for other properties that have sold in the immediate area? If all other homes on the street are selling for say $100,000 and the bank is selling it for 66,000 because of the work it needs then your offer would be too low. If all properties are selling for close to the 66,000 then your offer may be close. The problem is that as Jim said, the bank will only lower the price when the property does not sell. Good luck in your venture.

Scott - hopefully you will receive a response from a Realtor in your area - my experience with banks is that they will not accept an offer that is 50% off of list price - what they may end up doing is reducing the price over a long period of time to the level that the home is probably worth - my suspicion is that you will not even get a counterproposal with such a low (relative to list price) offer. I am not suggesting the home is worth more than $20,000 - what I am suggesting is that the bank may take a long time to get to the realization that the home should have been listed at a much lower price. If you think it is only worth $20,000, then I would wait until it is listed at $25,000 or $30,000 to make an offer of $20,000 - then you might have some success of obtaining the home. In the meantime, keep an eye on it and continue to look for another acceptable home. The bank is going to try and get as much as they can out of it and they will hold onto it longer than they should. If it is truly worth $20,000, then no one else will buy it for the price it is listed at - I would not pay more for a home than you think it is worth so contiune the search but in my humble opinion, it is a waste of time to submit an offer that is 67% of list price. Good luck.