What's a good wholesale profit/PM

[James Phillips]

I looked up what the winning bid for a HUD property was and it was about $131K, they are selling for $157K. The will have owned the property for about 1 month (the auction was 11/28)

They claim its a "clean up and sell" type property (painting too, but no major problems), and if that's the case I'd be willing to buy at $141K, but that still seems like a huge profit margin for 1 month.  I want to make a reasonable counteroffer, but I don't want to sour the deal either.  

Any help would be appreciated!

[J Scott]

Why do you care how much profit they are making, as long as you're making your desired profit?

Their profit is based on the work they did to get the property far enough below market value that they are able to command a large spread when reselling.  Maybe they got lucky doing that.  Maybe they were able to use their experience.  Maybe they were able to use their connections.  Regardless, they performed a service (acquiring a property far below market) and want to be compensated for how successful they were at performing that service.

Of course, if you don't want them to have that much of a profit, that's your prerogative...but if the deal is a good one, there's probably one of your competitors who'd be happy to let them have the profit.  Are you willing to take the chance.