Hi john - You have gotten some really great answers. There is no magic percentage, it is based on the home itself. I just wanted to add a small tidbit of information that may be helpful. There are a lot of older homes in these areas, beautiful but old. My home in West Ghent was built in the 1920's and when I did updating and remodeling there were a lot of problems that I didn't initially factor into my costs. For example, when I bought slate for my kitchen floor the contractor had to rip up three floors underneath the existing floor. After this was complete the wood underneath was all rotten and had to be completely rebuilt. When making negotiations, if you are not a resident expert in older homes try to find someone who is. You don't want the wool pulled over your eyes, so to speak. If the house isn't in the best condition you may be able to use your estimates as a leveraging tool for getting the best and fairest price possible. Quick fixes on older homes rarely turn out to be quick and inexpensive.

You've gotten some useful answers--both specific numbers (seems to be 3%-5%) and some excellent advice from Wayne.

Let me add one additional thought: Unless you're an economist, the "average spread between asking price and selling price" is irrelevant. And I doubt you're an economist; you've identified yourself as a home buyer.

My point is this: When you're buying a property, forget "average spread." It's meaningless. A house might be a bargain at 100% of its listing price. Or it might be overpriced even if you offered just 90% of the listing price. Just because an owner has priced a home at, say, $300,000 doesn't mean it's worth $291,000 (if there's a 3% average spread). Maybe other recent homes have sold for $325,000, but the owner just wants to sell. Or has to sell. On the other hand, Maybe the previous sales suggest the home is worth only $285,000. You'd be overpaying at $291,000.

So, determine what the specific property is really worth. Then make an offer at or below that figure. A good Realtor can help you with that.

Hi John. In my professional opinion, there is no useful, or reliable, answer to that question. The answer is across the board and is a very, very individual item which can vary widely from property to property. That is particularly true when it comes to our older neighborhoods here in Norfolk such as the three you mentioned. This also is in contrast, for example, with what you would find if we instead were talking about some five year old neighborhood in Chesapeake or Virginia Beach where all of the houses were between 2400 and 2600 square feet with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and an attached garage. There, such an indication, or response, may be of some usefulness. I honestly feel that in our desirable, older Norfolk neighborhoods, such an average - which of course is obtainable readily by just looking at our MLS and taking sold prices vs. original list prices - would be irrelevant when considering any one particular house.

The thing to do is to find a property that we like, have a good Realtor accurately and carefully study and analyze the comparable sold properties for you, develop our offer price, go in, and convince the other side why we are right. That is something I do on a daily basis.

If I can provide more information, please do not hesitate to let me know. I am a native of the City - in fact of West Ghent and live in Ghent right now - and work it extensively. I'd be grateful for the opportunity to help you with your search.

Best regards.
wayne.goodman@longandfoster.com

I figured I'd take some time and give you the real numbers of the Larchmont neighborhood, the numbers agents don't usually show you or know. These are all single family homes. I didn't combine Colonial Place to see what Frank might have saw, but I did see some low days on market, best one was 0, worst 648 days (expired), 355 (sold). Average days on market are 100 days, not including 30 - 60 days to close.

Out of the 30 sold properties:
3 sold for over asking price on average a 2% offer over asking...
9 Sold for asking price.
18 sold for under asking price.

Highest discount was: $140,000 off asking price.
Average discount off listing sold under asking: 9.2%
Average buyers discount in the neighborhood: 5%

So the buyers discount in that neighborhood is 5% on average. And the average time on market is 100 days. I hope that was able to give you a little insight to the market in that area in the past 6 months. Every neighborhood is it's own sub-market.

Drew

Hi John,
List price versus selling price seems to be changing to deeper discounts as this year has gone by. I agree with what has been said here that the more specific your question as to neighborhood and type of home, the better able one is to drill down to a more accurate answer. I would also add that type of financing has a good deal to do with how successful a lower offer is; FHA/VA buyers needing 100% of closing costs have less leverage versus conventional loan. Cash has the highest leverage, of course.
In working with my more analytical buyers I email statistical reports for their chosen neighborhoods and update periodically as our house hunting progress. Feel free to shoot me any more specific questions you may have.
Thanks, KK

Hi John,

Looking at *condos* in the expanded area of Ghent, such as properties on Redgate Ave., Boush St., Freeman, Ghent Square, and St. Pauls, those have sold between $215,000 to $375,000 and “on average,” sold about 1% - 3% under list price. However I did see a few properties that sold for about 5% under as well ($320,000 list w/$306,250 sales price). That odd sales price of $306,250 is indicative that the appraisal came in at that price, and not necessarily was it negotiated between buyer & seller to that lower price.

If looking at condos in Ghent, keep in mind that on average, condo fees are about $200 to $300 monthly, and property taxes are about $3,800 annually (or about $320 monthly). So based on today’s FHA interest rates of 4.75% placing, 3.5% down under an $275,000 FHA loan, buyer can expect to pay about $1,950 per month for a condo in the Ghent area (or perhaps about $1,550 for a $225,000 condo).

Looking at single family homes that have sold in the Larchmont and Colonial Place neighborhoods over the past 4 months, some properties actually sold for MORE than list price and by as much as 7%! Some were bank owned or VA owned properties, and many went under contract in as little as 4 to 18 days too!

If you’re looking to purchase anytime within the next 4-5 months, please feel free to contact me through my website and I’ll be happy to email you a list of active properties for sale. But asAs the first agents mentioned, there’s a lot of variables that affect what a seller will or will not accept.

I hope this was some help to you!

Kind regards,
Frank Biganski, Realtor
EZ-Vest Realty, Inc.
(757) 303-0517

It is a hard question because a lot of areas are different in the "buyers discount", basically that spread between asking and selling price. I see the average discount in some Virginia Beach neighborhoods a minimum of 3.5% to 8.5%. That's just a few areas I've checked out. The thing to be careful with is those days on market on some agent reports. Those numbers so the final list price, not the starting list price which in some cases can be $60,000 more. Sometimes those numbers are very deceptive.

In a buyers market expect a minimum of 3% buyers discount and in some cases 10 - 20% discount off the list price. Around the median price expect the smaller discount, 3 - 6%, higher the price sometimes higher the discount. Another thing to watch out for is those sellers who take into account the buyers discount and add it on top of their price. That's the wrong thing to do, no matter what you start at, you're still going to have to pay the buyers discount and with the wrong price to start, you're asking for more days on market and a lower selling price.

Understanding the buyers discount is important and overlooked by a lot of agents. Good to see you've educated yourself in this market.

Drew

John,

Hard to answer that question without narrowing down your area to more specific sections. Ghent for example is a fairly large area with a lot of home sales. Some areas sell better than others. Looking for a condo or single family home, or maybe a town home? That can also make a difference.

If you would like to work with an agent, I'd be happy to sit down and go over some areas of interest to you and figure out the average dollars per square foot, list price versus sale price, or sale price versus assessed value and so on.

Ed Graybill
Sales Associate
Wainwright Real Estate
757-201-0718
EdSellsVaBeach@cox.net