We are putting a bid in on a house tonight! UPDATE!

curiousgeorge Posted: Feb 17, 2009 10:41 AM

We are putting a bid in on a house tonight! UPDATE!

Please wish us luck! We have been on this journey for almost 2 years!

I also have question for you girls.
If the houses in the area are going for about 40K less, same condition, same size, would you throw a price 40K less? TIA

Update.

Okay....well we decided not to bid on the house. We took another look at it....I wasnt happy... but DH was. So the search continues. We ended up seeing the basement tonight. THere is an apartment in it....and it looks like blah! I cant see how some landlords can possible rent out these apartments for 1200 a month.......it was so dirty and smelled like mold.
THe price that they were asking was WAY over. The house was listed for only 20 days...they need toc ome down big time.

THe good thing that came out of this. We got a bank preapproval and we were approved at an rate of 4.875....which is amazing!!! We were calculating 5.75........that saves us lots of money!

lizzie217 Posted: Feb 17, 2009 10:43 AM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

GOOD LUCK

SparkyandAng Posted: Feb 17, 2009 10:44 AM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

Good luck!! I know how torturous this whole house hunting process is.

I had asked and was told that to offer 20% less than asking was reasonable.

Future Mulligan Posted: Feb 17, 2009 10:45 AM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

congrats!

i would ask the real estate agent....when we looked at a house and we liked it she would pull all the comparables in that neighborhood and she would tell us how much thoes houses sold for - that is something you would use to base your offer on....so if you are seeing that the comparables are selling at 40K less than their listing price i would go for it - we saw some houses that our agent told us were listed for way more than they were worth....

SB7308 Posted: Feb 17, 2009 10:45 AM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!

futuremrsfab Posted: Feb 17, 2009 10:46 AM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

Good luck!

On the price- are the houses a comparable size- same # of bedrooms/bathrooms, garage, etc. And are they in the same shape (i.e. if your property has an outdated kitchen or bathrooms and the other houses have updated you can go lower).

if all is equal, go $40k lower- they will probably counteroffer, but you still could end up less than asking.

jeanyus27 Posted: Feb 17, 2009 11:23 AM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

Just wanted to say good luck!

teenigrrl Posted: Feb 17, 2009 11:33 AM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

good luck!!!!

Mici n KC Posted: Feb 17, 2009 11:41 AM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

Good luck! Do you know how many offers the house currently got? It really depends on the situation of the homeowners. You don't want to insult them. We did $39k less and ended up with $30k less than the asking price.

agraydc Posted: Feb 17, 2009 12:25 PM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

good luck!!!!!!!!!

chrispar Posted: Feb 17, 2009 01:11 PM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

Good Luck!

Kimbalina Posted: Feb 17, 2009 01:25 PM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

Ohhhh good luck!!
I can not answer your question however.. i really haven't dove into house hunting yet!

TommysWife08 Posted: Feb 17, 2009 01:48 PM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

GOOD LUCK!!!!! let us know how it goes!!!

Cutechef729 Posted: Feb 17, 2009 05:35 PM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

Good luck!

catsgirl Posted: Feb 17, 2009 05:53 PM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

good luck

MrsHtobe Posted: Feb 17, 2009 09:24 PM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight!

We put an offer on a house at about $30k less than asking and ended up about $13k less than what they asked - but I think it was priced pretty reasonably. (we are going into contract tomorrow)

We had put an offer on another house about 10% below asking and got them to accept about 30k less than what they wanted (it fell through because of termites)

I think offering $40k less than asking if very reasonable, especially if houses in the area are going for less

Kimbalina Posted: Feb 18, 2009 07:28 AM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight! UPDATE!

Glad to hear that you took another look. Sometimes you miss those small things. Best wishes as your search continues!

SparkyandAng Posted: Feb 18, 2009 08:11 AM

Re: We are putting a bid in on a house tonight! UPDATE!

Good luck in your search...I know how exhausting it is, but I'm glad you trusted your instincts...they are usually right.

Oh and I believe I meant, 10% less than asking in my original post yesterday, I'm pretty sure I wrote 20%, must have been thinking downpayment. sorry.