Brenda,

Ok, that makes for another can of worms. The folks in the family might be insulted, but if I were their agent, I would advise them to at the very least counter offer.

If you have an agent working with you on this, have they given you the most recent (60-90day) solds in the area that compare to the house you want? What do the numbers say? If the sales are closer to your offer, so be it, but if they favor the sellers, then they might be willing to wait for another buyer to come along.

Since its an estate, they may not be in a huge rush to sell, as the property is probably paid for and they are just carrying the taxes/ins/utilities for now. On the other hand, once they do sell, they get to close the estate out quicker as well. If I were your agent...not knowing the comps, I would make another offer, and try to meet them halfway in the middle. Good luck with it!

Thanks Judy, what i meant to say was that we are trying to buy a home in clarksvile indiana, it needs qiute a bit of updating (aprox 15,000 worth) it is listed for 128,500 we made a cash offer of 112,000 with a close,by the in two weeks, 3 day proof of funds,it is owned by 3 heirs in an estate and the sellers were insulted by the offer are we being unreasonable to expect that they would consider this offer instead of being offended

You could, but it depends on who the customers are...in other words, if you offered a $1000 incentive to a first time buyer, that might be incentive enough. On the other hand, if you are in a move up category, it might not be.
Analyze who is going to buy your home first, hopefully discuss with your agent and then go from there.

In my own experience, I have not found incentives, either to the customer or to the selling broker to be that big of a draw. Much better to have the prettiest house and the prettiest price to begin with. Good Luck!