Many factors determine what a buyer should offer. An agt can guide you. You must look at the solds in the area in the past 6-12 months(to see average price per dq ft) to see how the seller's home compares to those #'s

All buyers assume all homes are overpriced..Wrong..Some sellers have their homes priced "to sell" so
many times a home will sell at full price. If it is a new listing and has 2 offers in 10 days, the seller is not going to come off his price. So many factors go into determining a good offer

tell me the area or neighborhood you're interested in and I will e-mail you the recent solds

write me at:
springrealtor@sbcglobal.net

A seller can ask any price they want and and a buyer can make any offer. There is not typically a "standard" percentage in which the buyer can expect to deduct from the asking price. The first thing to do is determine whether or not the home is priced correctly. Your Realtor should do a thorough CMA and that will then help determine the "percentage" you can subtract from the sales price.

Your offer really depends on how bad you want the house. There are many factors outside of the price and the numbers aspect of the game that effect an offer price. A complete analsis will include not only the obvious items but questions like what is the appreiciation potential. How do you measure the bargain of location items like cul de sac or walking distance to school? Even as an investor these questions need to be addressed and a price tag assigned. Determine your emotional level. Some home are easier to sell than others and always will be.

Is this a home you really want to buy? If so, remember all offers will be considered by the seller. They can always counter or reject the offer.

Jim (and the others) are correct: There's no magic number. Just one thing to keep in mind with the 97% figure (such as Alan and others cite) as the sold figure: You have to offer less to get that number.

For instance: Property is priced at $100,000. Properties are selling at 97% of the listed priced. That means, on average, that $100,000 property will sell for $97,000. (And let's say, for sake of argument, that the house is fairly priced at $100,000, and the sellers expect to sell it for $97,000). But are you going to offer $97,000? Not if you're a smart negotiator. Because if you offer $97,000, the sellers may counter at $98,500. You offer less--something below $97,000. Maybe $94,000. But never a round number So you offer $94,317. They counter at $97,000, and you accept.

But remember: Your question really has to be: "What is the average percentage to subtract from the number as established by the comps when determining the offer?" Never start from the list price. Always start from the comps.

Sorry Christine, it would help if my fat fingers could at least spell your name

Margaret

Chrietine,
Spring is a great area, you will enjoy living there, all the buyers and sellers I have worked with ther have been great people.
There is really no set amount or a precentage to give you as an answer. It depends. You may find one home you love. Now this house could be priced three different ways, and let us say you respond with an offer with a certain precentage difference. - take Alans 5%.

First home - over priced 15 % , you came in with an offer of less 5% theydon't even counter and you think you have a great deal. Well if this house is in Spring where sales prices vary a lot even within subdivisions and this home has been on the market less than a month it just might appraise at this inflated price. Which is not longer inflated you are helping the values come up in this subdivision.

Now let us take another home that is in the same subdivision, it is priced at 5% above the agerage sales price for the same size home. You offer 5% less they counter in between and you have a contract a 2.5 % higher that all the surround homes. This does not bother you because you love the back yard ,the location within the subdivision and oh those drapes in the living area. The appraiser comes our and does not appraise this house at the amount that you purchased it for, could be the condition of the home what ever.
Your lock has expired and you streached you loan to the top dollar and the interest rated went up. NOw you are iin a mess.
Third house - listed just at the market value because the people have to sell &or move fast and con not afford to make payment on two residences. You offer 5% they counter and more offers are coming in , whild you are thinking about their counter a full price no concession offer comes in . Now you missed a good deal.
Market value is willing buyer/willing seller - Appraised value is another story.

Have an experience Realtor assist you and advise you on the offer amount.
Any Realtor can do comps on the home and neighborhood ( a you do have a lot of variance in Spring)

Good Luck

Christine, Unfortunately there is no set percentage. Each deal is different. Your realtor should be able to assist you in determining the appropriate amount. Is the home priced high, med, or low? If high maybe you should bid low, if low maybe you should bid over asking price. Is this just one of 100 you liked or have you looked at 100 and only found one that you liked? If the first you can bid low, if the second bid to win. How long will you stay there? If it is forever, then price doesn't really matter as much, if you plan to flip it or move in a year then you need to get really agressive with price. There are just so many different senarios that is tough for us to tell you an appropriate amount. I normally determine this with the buyer in mind and the competitive market analysis or CMA for the area. If you're just looking for averages then you might use 96 to 97% of the sales price, but using a number like that could be doing you a disservice depending on your unique situation.

Unfortunately there's not a set percentage we all subtract from the list price when making an offer. There will most likely be other homes in the area that are similar and have sold recently. A Realtor will have access to that information and can help you with a price.

Also consider how much you like the house. If you really like it, the price is reasonable, and the price is in your budget, don't risk losing the house over trying to get the lowest possible price. This just happened to some buyers I know. They insisted on low-balling an offer on a house that had been on the market for over a year. The house was priced reasonably and they really liked it. They figured that surely, the seller would reduce his price substantially just to get rid of the property that had been vacant for a long period of time. Well, sure enough, as they submitted their lowball offer another offer came in at the same time for a higher, more reasonable price. The sellers chose that offer and it went to close. The buyers fell into a trap that a lot of buyers are in right now. They're thinking that everyone is desperate to get out and will take a hit on selling their house. They think the markets are going lower and lower and their mindset is to settle for nothing less than a steal. The steals are out there, but there are also other homes that are priced well and the sellers refuse to fall victim to the news. Texas is still doing well compared to the other states as far as having a smaller drop in real estate prices.

From your question, it sounds like you don't have a Realtor and maybe want to discount the Realtor's fee that the seller would normally pay. What you may not know, is that when the seller entered into an agreement with their listing agent, they agreed to pay that agent X% of the sales price of the home. That agent would then split X% with the buyer's agent. IF no other agent is involved, the listing agent would get to keep that full X% because there is more work to do on their part when the buyer is not represented.
Also if you don't have an agent, remember that while you and the listing agent will be in constant communication, your interests will not be taken into account AT ALL. The listing agent is going to do everything in the best interest of his/her client.

If you DO have an agent, he/she should provide you with the answer your seeking and give you some insight as to what the market is doing and where it is going.

Where is your real estate agent? The agent should be providing the CMA's for the area therefore you know how to place an offer on a property. All homes if going thru a lender is appraised value for the homes sold "which are like" properties over the past 6 months.

However no offer is considered acceptable unless you attach your pre-approval letter from a lender.Low ball an offer is not to your best interest for the hacks off the the listing agent and seller can cost you $1000's more than placing a reasonable offer.

Have your agent run a Buyers CMA on the property. That is the proper way to determine the price. That being said, homes are not like cars (where hundreds of the exact same model were produced). There is only one home in the same location. I have seen some people lose out on the home they love because of a thousand or two thousand dollars. To me, that doesn't make sense.

This question has been answered many times. The name of the location changes, but the fact about the answer remains the same. Every transaction is unique, and the stats you want are not likely to be helpful. Likely, Spring is not a unique market, and the ratio may range from 1:0.85 up to 1:1.03, like it does in San Antonio.

It can even hurt you if you go into a transaction with a figure, like 97%. Assume a scenario wherein you make an offer on a home that 's priced at 112% of market value. It's not unusual to find properties priced that far over market. You would be paying 108.64% of market value.

Even with the stats on sold properties you want, factors like the property condition, upgrades, improvements, seller motivation, buyer motivation, whether the property was priced right, and seller contribution would not be readily available--and make a big difference to the bottom line.

If you make a buyer's representation arrangement with a good agent, the agent would likely not be able to get the data on seller contribution or most of the other factors, though many of them can be inferred. The agent can however do a market analysis on the property you find and recommend strategies that will help you get your best price and lower your costs.

Christine,

As a listing agent, I try to build in a little bit of margin in the List Price...usually between 3% to 5%. This is typically what a Seller can negotiate with. We try to maintain a List to SOLD ratio of 97%+. This means that if the SOLD price for a property is 97% or higher of the List Price, then it was priced right. So with this in mind, your offer should be such that you can negotiate a finally SOLD price in that range.

There are of couse many other factors that can complicate this. But for a straightforward transaction like you describe, this is a good rule of thumb.

Hope this helps.

Alan Wynn - Realtor
Like NO ONE Else!
214.729.5582
info@DallasHousesOnTheWeb.com