The offer you tender depends mostly on the local market. If your agent is attentive enough, move on to someone who is hungrier. We lost out on a house because of a weak agent. You owe the agent nothing. Find someone who will better serve you. He /She will be making upwards of $4,500 off of your purchase, they should do something to earn it.
-----Original Message----- From: Jim Davis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 8:51 PM To: CF-Community Subject: How much to offer for a house? We were planning on moving in the summer (after my son is out of school) but my wife has found her "perfect house". Now we're not sure how to proceed. The house is a gorgeous old Victorian. Quite a notch larger than we really need, but with plenty of room for family. It had a new roof in 90 and a new furnace in 97. From the (few and small) pictures it looks to have been very well maintained and kept up. It's only 11 miles from my new office and is a 50'x165' lot (so it's got to have a sizable yard). Here's the listing: http://www.scrantonpamls.com/scr/maildoc/CAAa003v0.html It's at the upper zone of our "comfort" limit (where the monthly costs of the house won't be much more than the monthly costs we have with rent right now). I would have like something lower (much lower actually) but we can definitely afford it without worry and my wife is in complete LOVE with it. When we called real estate agents on the listing they treated us as if this were a suggestion - something to inform looks at other houses. That would be fine but they didn't seem to take our interest in THIS house very seriously. (One woman sent us this listing as well: http://www.scrantonpamls.com/scr/maildoc/a006_w.html which makes me think she wasn't taking us seriously... these two places just aren't in the same class.) So any ideas on how to proceed. I don't want to lose the place just because the agents aren't paying us enough attention. I'm tempted to make a bid outright (preferably, of course, pending inspection and a visit or two) just to make sure that we get a chance to on it if there are other bidders. At the same time I'd love to push the sale off for another four months... Anyway... what do you think a decent opening offer is? I've never done this before - I don't want to be insulting but at the same time I don't want to spend more than I need to. Since the house is listed at $175,000 I'd be thinking anyplace from 150 to 160 as an opening bid. What do you think? Also how long does the process usually take (in our case the longer the better) and how much should we expect to pay out in closing costs? Thanks in advance - and wish us luck! Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Stay Ahead of Hackers - Download ZoneAlarm Pro http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=65 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:187628 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
