I imagine real estate agents will be handeling many more bids below the listing price. I found a very good article that can help forge a successful under list price bid.
How to Bid Low on a Home Without Offending the Seller
By Amy Hoak via MarketWatch
Here are three guidelines on how -- and when -- to make an aggressive bid: Following is the first of three bidding strategies that I thought wewre insightful:
Learn how motivated the seller is to make a deal.
Certain sellers are going to be more willing than others to negotiate a low offer -- and there are several giveaways that might indicate more leeway on price.
For instance, if the sellers have already purchased another home and that sale has closed, they're likely to be more willing to make a deal, says Dick Gaylord, president elect of the National Association of Realtors and a broker with Re/Max Real Estate Specialists in Long Beach, Calif.
If the property has been on the market for a long time, sellers will be interested in entertaining any offers, he adds.
Mr. Gaylord says he talks to the seller's agent to get as many details as possible about how motivated the seller is.
Overall local market conditions also play a role. The housing market in which Mr. O'Heron bought, for example, was sluggish. The home he purchased had been on the market for about a year.
Because of the job relocation, the seller needed to move and wasn't in the position to take the home off the market until conditions were more favorable, Mr. O'Heron says.
Another good point in the article looks at the market going forward: Buyers and sellers will often look at the comps to get a feeling for market value. But what if you think the market is going to get weaker. If you looked at todays comps you might still be overpaying in a weakening market. The article goes on to make the point:
"If we just looked at the relative values of the houses that sold, we would end up paying too much for that house because we know that the values are going to fall," Mr. Boyd says. "If we see two years' worth of inventory, we should be buying 5%, potentially 10% less than what houses have sold for in the past year in the neighborhood."
Thanks for Reading
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