Making Offers Limbo - How Low Can You Go?

[David Hays]

This is going to be another one of those ultra basic questions, but one that´s been increasingly coming to mind (and I´ve yet to really get a conclusive answer).

When it comes to making offers, how low do you go? I hear things like ¨I´m making 100s of offers,¨ ¨I offered $10k on this $200k house,¨ etc.. What I´m wondering, however, is what´s the etiquette here? More than that, given those examples above, how do you avoid making an offer on pretty much every property? To me it seems like most things can be a home-run if you got the right price - ¨Well, this 4plex is listed at $400k and fully-leased, so this could be a killer deal for me if I got it at $200k¨. 

Part of me says not to make ridiculous offers, but the more BP podcasts I hear, the more ¨If you´re not embarrassed of your offer, then you´re offering too much¨ is repeated. I´d appreciate those of you willing to weigh in here.