Asking Price on New Market Listing…How Low Can I Make an Offer?

Published by cravat | Filed under Buyer / Seller Tips, Miscellaneous, Real Estate, Shout Outs, Uncategorized

In real estate market is really a story of two markets – those that are listed in the “in the market” — which means that are valued competitively because of their location and current property condition and those “out of the market” – which means they are valued way too high given their location and condition.

Though the typical days on market for Northern Virginia is on the edge is on the sixty to eighty day range. Information is easily available in the internet which are usually being monitored by some people on a regular basis. Those data simply breaks out the number of days a listed property was on the market before it sold. You can compare the average on the first to the latest month on the market.

Serious investors who consume their time checking at properties are not surprised at all that some listed houses seem to take off the market and sometimes being sold even before the first open house. Clearly, if a potential buyer sees a property that is “in the market” that they really are interested, they should be able to prepare and make an immediate offer.

The question now is: If a listed property is fresh to market, is it possible for me to bid below the listed price? If so, how far low?

The easy part first: Of course you can bid below the labeled price. You can actually give whatever price you like but the owner does not have to agree on what you have offered and it simply add up to the fact that it invites contending offers. When they have acknowledged your offer, experienced and good listing agents will call literally everyone on his / her list who has spoken their interest and informed them “We have an offer, would your client like to put a counter-offer?” Fence sitting buyers are usually triggered once they know that some interested buyers wants the property and the succeeding buyer thinks your offer was a competitive one and more likely post a very competitive offer, as well. So if you bid way too low you invite healthy competition.

Answering the second question, well actually did some research on the past 30 days of sales in the market. I checked on the listed market lesser that 21 days when they were sold. The best way to see all these, on average, is the price a seller was willing to accept if their property was “in the market” such that it drawn an offer.

Here is what I found:

Standard List Price: = $397,399

Standard Sold Price = $395,714

Standard List-to-Sales-Price Ratio = 99.6%

The lesson to take for the owners: If you price it right, it will be sold for very close to your asking price at least within 30 days.

The lesson for investors: If you see a property you think is “in the market” and really come close to what you need, you better move fast and must be ready to make a realistic offer.