Making an Offer 20% lower than Asking Price acceptable?

I am hoping to make an offer on a house within the next couple of days. It's a FSBO, so no realtors are involved which helps as far as there being no real estate commissions on either side to be paid. Asking price is $258,000 and I would like to start by offering 20% lower at $206,400. The property has been on the market for at least 9 months, however I don't know that the seller's are anxious to sell and may not mind holding the property. The market in the area the home is located is very slow right now and on the border line of becoming a distressed market. I really don't think they've received any other offers on the property and doubt they will any time soon. Is offering 20% lower than asking price reasonable with today's market conditions?

The house was previously listed with a realtor for probably 6 months. From what I can tell, they listed for 3 months or so FSBO, then listed with a realtor for 6 months, and now it's been unlisted for over 30 days. They have stated they are not relisting with the realtor.
I plan on offering the $206,400 with a 3% seller contribution and then assume they will counter higher, which is fine. I'm just hoping not to insult them with the 1st offer.

In my opinion your offer is too low and your running the risk of insulting the sellers. If the comparison value is fair for the market value in the area then a offer of $225,000 would be more acceptable.

Good luck

Give him an offer of $200,000 start there. All he can say is no, then you have bargaining power if you are a serious prospect and the house has been on the market for a while they might be desperate. Most FSBO people are greedy so they all ready over priced it. But if I were you I would check out (zillow.com) to see the value of the home first. Zillow.com it's free nothing to fill out, nothing to lose. Before you buy get an inspection!!!!!

why the hell not....it's an offer

Start low, then work your way up...

It is definately worth a try. They will probablly come back with a counter offer. Good luck.

sure, but don't expect them to necessarily accept the offer, they may come back to you with a counteroffer at a higher price, and you can come back with something a bit lower than the counteroffer, and so forth, until you bargain out a price that the Seller will accept and you are willing to pay...good luck

YES!! in this market you can get whatever you want. I recieved a 25 thousand dollar credit and a ton of free upgrades.
Good luck!

$50,000 is a lot to take off of a first offer. is the house worth it? do you really want it? make the strongest offer you can that fits within the market. don't over pay. you may proceed with the 20% off offer, but the seller may be insulted by it and not even make a counteroffer. just send over an offer of your top dollar and if they don't like it. too bad. 9 months for a FSBO isn't uncommon. if it was listed, I would say you are on the right line of thinking.

that a lot lower than a typica starting offer.

you can go on Zillo.com and look at what the house is worth and what else is selling in the neighborhood.

You can alway try again if they reject your offer, but you risk pissing off the seller and setting a bad tone for future negiotations.

also with a low offer you better be ready to accept the house as is, with or without an inspection.
All that stuff costs money too.

It's most definitely reasonable. We payed 拢200,000 for our house, when the asking price was nearer to 拢300,000. It's now worth almost 拢500,000! Property makes an excellent investment. Good luck!

I would not go below 200,000 for a base offer. Go a little lower on your offer though. I would start at 201,000-202,000 and see if that gets you anywhere. It is likely that they only want 200k for it to begin with and just over priced it so that they could negotiate with you on it and make you feel like you have talked them into a great deal.

BECAUSE this is a FSBO do not skip any of the necessary steps, inspections, title search and so on. Since neither of you know what you are really doing have an ATTY draw up the contracts or at best look at them to make sure you are protected in case something comes back on those reports that you do not like.

There is no such thing as a rediculously low offer. With today's market, I think he would jujmp at 20% lower than asking. H..., I would offer 30% or 40% lower ... you can always go back and raise the amount. You can always raise the offer....but you can't ever lower it. I would offer 40% and see what the effect is .... then, go up with your offer a few days later, etc., etc. This is a buyers market.

And don't be blinded by 'I don't need to sell it' or whatever. They have it on the market, they want to sell it. In negotiations, you have to work to find where the 'middle ground' is - but you ALWAYS go in low.

There are too many veritables to determine if this is a good offer or not. However, this is BUSINESS. Do not worry about insulting anyone. The worst thing they can do is say no.

I would not have gotten anywhere if I worried about insulting people. I am interested in providing for my family, I am not going to make them pay to spare someone an offense.

First off, don't rely on any information you get from Zillow, it is not a reliable source on real market value. Neither is tax assessed value.

Next, although I tell my clients this is business and not personal, many take it personally. Some become down right indignant and refuse to even respond to low offers.

Considering the house has been on the market so long, I suspect the price is too high, but the sellers may not care. Some sellers are set on their price and they aren't budging because they are not motivated to sell or for other reasons.

You can ask for the 20% reduction (AND you want a sellers contribution!), but I think you are setting yourself up for a long, tumultuous negotiation.

Depends on the sellers and their personalities. I've encountered more than one seller in the past who was so offended by such a low offer that I (the listing realtor) was instructed to entertain NO more offers from the buyer involved, no matter WHAT the offering price was.

This sort of person is not common, but they do exist. They may counter your offer, or they may tell you to go to hell and stay out of their lives. The call is yours.

I would do a quick comparison of similar homes within 10 or 20 blocks. You may be able to get a list of what was sold and what they sold for from the assessor. Use 10 comparable houses. Research those. Use Realtor.com to compare 10 unsold houses. Find the assessed value of the property in question, and ask the assessor what is the ratio of true value to assessed value. Be low key when you ask for this kind of help from the assessor.