Full price will always get their attention. Seriously though, there are too many variables to give you a good answer. For instance, if it's located in an area of million dollar homes, $300k might be a steal. I have seen many distressed homes sell for quite a bit more than asking and had multiple offers. First establish who owns the home. Has it been forclosed or is it still owner owned or in a short sale status. This will help establish motivation of the seller. If it's forclosed, your in the last step of loss mitigation and the bank is going to get it off the books one way or another. Then you need to figure out what area homes are going for. THis should give you a benchmark of what this home would sell for in good condition. Use some estimating skills and back out all the needed repairs from your benchmark price. Then deduct some more for your time, efforts, labor and profit margin for buying a fixer upper. The arrived at figure should keep you from being upside down on the investment after work has been done,

Talk to your agent, they can't tell you but they can guide you along and help make suggestions by what other homes have sold for and how long those home have been on the market.

The question to ask is have you been pre-approved to let them know you are serious buyer?

Dave Woodson
The Indiana FHA Expert