Angela Elliott

Offers are like water, they tend to find their own level. You need to have your real estate professional perform a market analysis for the property so that you can see what the recent sales are for the area. This helps you determine what type of offer to make and establishes that the current listing price is fair as well. I notice a lot of homes on the market in this price range tend to close within $5000 from asking price, based on the CMAs I've done in this price range.

A factor to consider is, if you need the seller to contribute to your closing costs, how that is going to affect the seller's net. If you'd like the seller to "pay for" $4000 of your closing costs, you need to consider that is $4000 off whatever your offer is, so if you wanted to initially offer $145,000 AND ask for $4000 in closing, that brings the seller down to effectively $141,000. Remember that if the seller has the property listed, they will most likely be paying a sales commission. Sellers here typically pay for the buyer's title insurance as well as they're own closing costs, which will bring down that $141,000 even further.

Angela Elliott, Century 21/Classic Properties
352.256.7038 - Fri May 9 2008, 12:09

Damion - There are approx. 24 listings claiming to be "short sales" available on the Gainesville MLS - 35 for Alachua County. - Fri May 9 2008, 11:59