Jennifer your buyer broker should be able to cpmplete a brokers price oppinion that will show what similar homes have sold for in the last 3 months using home sthat are simialr in size, condition, style and area. Your broker can also check to see what current mortgages or leins are on the property, what they paid for it and any details of why or how quick teh seller needs to sell or not. This will assist you in what you should offer.

Hello Jennifer- I would recommend that you (and the seller) pay an apprasier to arrive at a fair market value of the property. That is the fairest way with no leanings one way or another. Most appraisals costs about $300. It would settle any disputes.
If you need some help with that, I could give you a couple names.

If you need a mortage also, in an ideal world you could use that appraisal as the appraisal that your lender will require (maybe). That gets more complicated....
Thanks and good luck,

Ken L.

Hi Jennifer,
I'm sure that your agent has a strategy in place to help you with making your offer, including the wording of your pre-approval, along with any contingencies and/or concessions you will be asking for, the most recent comps for the area, and knowledge of any local issues. Congratulations on finding a house to make an offer on--hopefully you'll be able to take advantage of the low interest rates and maybe even the 8K tax credit!