What should I offer on a 4 BR house – asking price $238,900?
It is a center-hall colonial with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms. The home is 2200 sq feet and sits on 1/2 acer. (A large lot for this town.) The house was built in 2001 and is in good condition. It is in a very nice neighborhood in the suburbs. Most of the houses in the neighborhood have sold for $250k – $350k in recent years. The neighborhood has a community pool and is within walking distance of a city park. My only concern is that there is a musty smell in the basement. The house is for sale by owner, so there are no realtors involved.
THANKS!
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January 14th, 2010 at 3:15 am
ten percent less than the asking price..
January 16th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
Offer 20% less than they are asking, contingent on a home inspection that will make a diagnosis of the basement odor.
They won’t accept 20% less, but this will get you into negotiations.
January 19th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
If the market is slow, put in a low offer- Like 215,000. If that embarrasses you- then its low enough. You never know what someone is willing to take. The worst they can do is say no, and if the market is slow like you say- they will more than likely come back with a counteroffer- probably something like 233,000, then you can recounter and go back and forth till you both settle on a price.
Even though it is fairly priced- the market is slow and the longer they wait- the worse it could get- and they probably know that. Also- you never know how fast they want out either.
January 20th, 2010 at 6:07 am
I would worry about the musty smell. Mold can be a huge problem in a home, once in the walls can spread quickly and become very costly to get rid of.
Have someone you know come in and inspect the home. It’s in your right as long as you are paying for it.
If there is no mold or structural damage, the market is very slow now and you will only get what you ask for. Consider 7-8% below. But it’s hard to tell exactly without seeing the place and doing the research.
All else fails, talk to the neighbors!
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:16 am
If there is a water leak. which there probaby is, they must divulge this information to you, if not and you end up with the house and a wet basement and costs, you have to go after them for not fully disclosing and then sue them for payment for repairs.
I would talk to the people about the basement,and see what they tell you.
Bring in an inspector as a condition of the sale……
If you have checked out similar properties, make sure the sales have been within the last 3-6 months no longer, otherwise the prices are irrelevent….
You can make an offer at 220,00 and run with that, see if they counter it and then meet them half way.. If the market is slow even tho it is appraised at that value does not make it worth that in todays market…….Also make a condition on the house for a house inspector to examine and approve it, that it is not going to be a big headache and cost a lot of money for repairs to the basement. He will check out the foundation and everything else. He will give you an estimate if work needs to be done. It is well worth the 250-300 dollars instead of making a mistake….
January 23rd, 2010 at 11:28 am
Appraised value is a basis for tax purposes, and does not represent the actual value of a home. In point of fact, the appraised value in this context is much lower than the actual value.
What you want to get is comparable sales or “comps” as they call them. One place you can do that is to go to zillow.com. It is a website that gives approximate values of homes by considering comps sold in recent time. It’s not an “official” guide, but it will give you an idea of how much similar properties in the area have sold for over the last couple of months or so. Remember, values are changing rapidly in this market. In most areas the values are dropping, but in some, they are stable or even rising. Zillow will give you an idea of what is happening in your area.
A lowball offer that is too low just gets you into a no win bidding war. If they are asking 238, I wouldnt go too much lower than 228. Now if you want to offer much lower, dont expect a counter offer. But you can watch the house and see how long it’s on the market after your offer. If it’s still there in another month or two, offer again.
January 24th, 2010 at 6:18 am
While you give a lot of details (FYI: the word is “acre”), you omitted the single most important factor: WHAT CITY/STATE IS THE HOUSE IN??? There is a HUGE difference between such a home in, say, Long Island, NY or Long Beach, CA, versus Long Lake, KS! As the famous saying goes, “Location, location, location!” Without that information, nobody can give you any advice (given the crazy housing market, any such advice could be valid today and terrible tomorrow!).
Unless the current homeowners are idiots, I find it hard to believe that they’d offer a home at more than its appraisal! Furthermore, if the price of homes in the area has dropped from $350k “in recent years” down to $238k, you might want to consider a substantially lower offer.
Regardless, it certainly seems as if you have done your homework, so I’m at a loss as to understand why you need our opinion at all!
Good luck!
January 27th, 2010 at 10:52 am
What you found on the county web site is not an appraisal, it is the tax assessed value. This can be drastically different than appraisal value.
Of course you want to get the house as cheap as possible. Who wouldn’t?
One concern, are you going to get a home inspection? Although I wouldn’t be overly concerned about the musty smell, I would want to know that it isn’t an indicator of a bigger problem.
I would offer about 10% less than asking price. Good luck!
January 30th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Don’t make it so cheap that they won’t consider your offer. 10% would be where I’d start and they may counter offer with 5 %