under bidding

I was talking to a girl at work, she is looking at bigger homes in her area. She has been under bidding on the $.( In hopes someone will take her offer)


Has anyone done this? Or should I say, has it ever worked for anyone?

We tried to bid $15K lower than asking price on a small house and we were pulled into a bidding war - basically b/c the real estate agent knew what amount we were pre-approved for, and wanted to see how high we'd go.

I stood my ground firmly - based upon what I felt the house was worth (it was only a 2 Br!) and we ended up pulling our offer b/c they were jerking us around.

I think if someone really wants the house, in this market, they have to bid within $10K of the asking price to start - and then usually, the seller counter-offers to get a bit more from the buyers. JMO. It is definitely a seller's market - and if someone wants to low-ball an offer, they do risk losing to someone who has plenty of $$$ and is not afraid to spend it!

We got our underbid accepted - though it was almost 2 years ago. The house needed a lot of cosmetic work and the showing agent and listing agent were from the same office, so I think the listing agent strongly urged her client to accept our offer with a little negotiation.

It was a fair offer considering the work that needed to be done and the listing agent knew we would not have any problems getting the mortgage approved and we had a good downpayment so getting the buyer to accept our offer would be good not only for the seller but for both agents and their agency.

I think you have a better chance of getting an underbid accepted if the house needs lots of work or if it's been on the market awhile - it may be overpriced.

Here are my two cents on the topic:

From my experience, most asking prices are inflated (sometimes ridiculously so), especially when they first come on the market. I think that bidding below the asking price is the way to go, as long as it is not insulting. An opening bid is simply the beginning of a conversation, it gets you in 'the game.' The seller will come back with a counter offer, and hopefully you can then meet somewhere in between. Also, if you have been pre-approved for a mortgage, (which I highly suggest), you will be considered a serious buyer and may have your bid accepted over a slighter higher bid where the person was not pre-approved. Do your research to see what similar homes in the area are selling for. Also keep in mind that if a house sells for much more than what the bank appraises it for, you may have difficulty in getting the mortgage amount that you need.

We were going to underbid on our home, just to start the negotiation process and work our way up to our 'limit'. The RE Agent knew how much theyd settle for and not a dime less, so we went straight to what they were asking, since it was within our budget. (We had spent lots of time with our agent, and trusted him and his word, he was that kind of guy =) We just wanted the house, whatever it took. There was a deal that fell through the week before, because the hubby didnt want a pool (with kids). So the RE Agent knew exactly what $ amt they wanted and would sign for.

I think it also depends on how badly you want the house and how high you'll go. But we would have lost the house if we underbid, and we didnt want to risk that. So we gave them what they were asking.

We were in a bidding war on a house before this one, and we were bidding about 50K HIGHER than what we got this one for! It got out of hand, so we stopped bidding, sometimes its more the rush of the game! then you look back and see what you were paying for a certain house! Thank goodness we pulled out of that war.

I have to say its really true that its amazing how things work out, when you wind up finding the home you love best. Of the 2-3 homes we put bids on, (and the one huge bidding war) we looked back and saw how our current home has so many more 'pluses' than the others that we didnt get.

I think a lot of factors go into whether a low bid will be accepted. I underbid and it worked for me. However, most of my friends who recently bought homes in the past year or two told us that their houses went close to selling price and their experience the bidding wars was just that. These were homes in all different price ranges (in the 300K to 650K range).

When we found our house, although the selling price was in our budget, we didn't feel the house was worth that. The price definitley seemed inflated. But we loved this house. We knew it needed some work (new windows and roof) and budgeted for that when we gave our bid. We also did some research on sites like mynassauproperty to find what other houses on the block went for. The sellers were very anxious to move which was also to our advantage. We knew we were good buyers being we were flexible to close quickly, knew getting a mortgage was going to be pretty easy, and DH works for the financial institution we were using for the mortgage. There was also only one other bid on the house - or so we heard and they could not move in for a couple months longer than us. Also, the realtor gave us a more realistic idea of what she thought they would take. So with those factors we underbid and clearly stated the reasons behind it to the realtor. After the bid, we met in the middle and wound up getting the house about 40K less than the original selling price. A little more than 10K of what the realtor said they would accept. We thought that was a good deal. I have to tell you we were very scared to go in that much lower. But basically we said this is what we feel the house is worth and if not it was not meant to be and we will keep looking since we were not in a rush to move anyway. I think we are lucky - in many of my friends experiences this has not been the case.

It depends, in my opinion, on how much the house is and if the house is a starter or not. Most starter houses, under $400K, will get close to the asking price, unless the house is 1) in horrible horrible condition or 2) in a bad neighborhood. It also depends on if the neighborhood is desired, if the sellers are motivated and if the asking price was originally outrageous.

We underbid on our house, but the seller came back in which we only up'd our bid by another $5K. They had two more couples that wanted the house ... one that wouldn't counter and the other that outbid us, but we got the accepted offer. We had better terms. Overall, we paid $24K less than the asking price, but my house needed some work too.

I think there is a lot to be said for being in the right place at the right time when it comes to real estate. There are so many factors that can come into play. You dont always know the sellers movitation.

My SIL and her sibs recently sold thier parents house (estate situation) in Northport for slightly less than the asking price. The buyer has 3 kids, had a good down payment and very strong financials. They decided they liked the family and wanted to get the deal done so they didnt have to worry about the house over the winter. In a way it all comes down to luck.

It depends on a lot...time of year (now is slow so many times it works), length of time the house is on the market, how motivated the sellers are to sell it, and of course the market.

I'm an agent...FM if you have specific questions.

i think it's all been said above but i'll put my two cents in.

first house DH and I bid on about 2 years ago. we won the bid for about 17K less than asking price. house needed some work but was definitely livable. we backed out because DH was nervous. we weren't engaged yet and he would be paying the mortage all by himself since i wouldn't be living there, and was concerned he would be too stretched financially.

second house we bid on we lost big time. we came in a bit under the asking price, but people bid about 15K over the asking price.

third house we first bid about 49K less. it wasn't worth what they were asking. since we saw it at an open house, we had to go through the listing agent. she never even presented our bid to the sellers. i was POed. but DH really liked the house. a few weeks went by, i called. made a new bid about 25K less than asking price. there was already an accepted offer so we were bidding for back up offer. eventually they got us up to 10K less than asking price, and we became back up.
first accepted offer had 48 hours to apply for a bridge loan or sell their home or it would come to us. they didn't want a bridge loan nor could they sell (we looked at their house too - it was not nice) so we got the house!
and since then, it has appreciated almost 100K in value. imagine what the value will be when we put walls back up upstairs!

We underbid on our home by $5,000 and our bid was accepted. I knew the seller was anxious to sell quickly because she was pregnant and needed to move in a month or so. In retrospect, I wish I had bid $10,000 less to see what happened, but Keith thought I was insane for wanting to offer less in teh first place and he wouldn't let me go that low.

I think it can't hurt. If you bid less and tell the seller to let you know if they get any other offers, you can always go higher. But you wont ever be able to lower yout offer to see what might happen.

i know... as this happened with my sister when she looked at houses, and my neighbors selling there houses... that sometimes they would sell the house to a lower bider if they liked the couple, or family...

i hope we can get one for less than asking price, but im prepared to pay for what im looking for i suppose

We underbid our house about two years. We started about 50 grand under....and we got it for 35 grand under....This was in November and my last sentence to the agent was 'if the owners want to sit on a house over the winter then fine' .... she called us back within a few minutes and the house was ours. We got a fantastic buy here in North Merrick. We are very happy here!!!

Good luck to all in finding a happy home!

Take your time in looking...find a place where you want to live and look, look and look.....you will find a house!