Sure Supreme...................you can lowball any price.......but, lowballing and actually BUYING the home are 2 different things.
If you want to pop in and out of making lowball offers..go ahead..........maybe you'll get lucky....maybe you won't. And,......maybe one day you'll actually find a home along the way that you love and really want to buy.......then you'll offer what is reasonable, not just low.

Good luck!
Debbie Rose
Prudential NJ Properties

I think if a person in moving to pickeringon....think about it the taxes are very HIGH....live in a surrounding area ...if you have kids they can still go to pickerington central or north etc......and not pay the big tax game here

I would not buy a higher price to help the neighbors raise their prices.......... I know what I want and I rent a decent place for not too much, and I can save for the future, but I don't have enough for a big downpaymt yet, I'll try to get what I want for what I have and see what happens, thanks for all the answers

The question I ask in your situation is "what is your goal" is it to buy a HOME or is it to steel a house?

My advice is to FORGET what percent below asking price you get the house... I can find homes sales where the buyer got a great deal... ie way below asking price where they way over paid... I can also find home sales where the buyer paid asking price and got a steal... Asking price is NOT relevant to the VALUE of a home.

My suggestion is to buy now! You have known information... prices are great, interest rates are artificially to government activity and the government is paying you to buy a house... Who knows what will happen in December??? You may save %5000 more by waiting only to loose the $8k and have interest rates go up a point or two... that would COST you thousands...

Go with what you know...you can never plan to catch the bottom of the market and my oppinion is waiting will cost you... its just that an oppinion but keep in mind you are gambling either way... make an educated decision and keep in mind that while a house is also an investment it is ALWAYS your home...

Also unless you are planning on selling fairly quickly all you do by buying low is set the basis for appreciation lower for you neighborhood...

My recommendation is to work with a realtor that will notify you the instant that a bank owned property hits the market. The best priced homes do go under contract quickly(sometimes within hours) and you might not even know that there were homes in your price range because they are under contract before they hit a website that you are searching. HUD homes are supposed to only be updated on Fridays and there is a listing period for these. I understand what you are saying about December/January. I wasn't sure if you were aware of the 'talks' about extending and expanding the first time homebuyer tax credit. I recommend keeping up to date about the possibility of them extending this throughout 2010 and the possibility that they will open it up to all homebuyers and not just first time homebuyers. I have a few buyers that are not first time homebuyers and are basically waiting to see if this passes or not. They have nothing to loose since they can't take that credit right now anyways. Just a little FYI.

So December has significantly less homes to buy? how about huds? I know when there are those in the area I want they are usually good priced for me, but sometimes there are none in that area.

You can lowball a house at any time. Especially if you aren’t picky. It won’t matter if you lose it, right? It sounds as if you are more concerned with getting a certain percentage off list rather than being concerned with what the house is worth. IMO your expectations may be a little unreasonable. We come across this all the time, especially in resort areas such as where I practice (I get a lot of calls “do you have anything, maybe a handyman special, on a nice sized lot, doesn’t have to be ON THE WATER, but if it was, that would be great, but if it was just CLOSE. . . . , for around $200,000?“) You can’t afford to live where you want unless someone gives their house to you below market value. Might that happen? It’s possible but it isn’t likely. As for the suggestion to shop in December, depends. There are less homes on the market in December, so your choice would be smaller, are people who have their homes on the market in December more “desperate”? May be, maybe not. Sounds like some of the strategies one of my buyers used to do: look in the refrigerator and see what was in there because he could determine the seller’s motivation by what food they had, LOL.

I am not talking about an specific home, I am actually very flexible and have only a few requests, but the location is important to me (schools and crime rates), and I would rather rent and save for a little more than buy a "dream home" in an area I don't like and be unhappy (I'm happy where I am, but would buy if I can afford even a small home in a good area). I guess I'm just wondering if it is worth it to let the tax credit date expire in order to get the deal we need in Dec.

Supereme,you can do that anytime,it depends on how long on mkt,etc... are you sure this home will be there in dec,then what will you do?give me some more info.