Foreclosure - How Do I Negotiating Best Price With Bank

[John Trimper]

First, I'm very new here, and I tried to find answer from past posts, not easy to find or understand lingo, etc.
Anyways, here is what's going on, and my question.
I plan to sell my current house and plan to use the cash to buy a bank foreclosure. For the record, I am dealing with small money, less than 60K.
I have found a few foreclosures and looked at them. They are almost inhabitable and therefore over-priced, (I'll say, in my opinion).
How much negotiating room is there on bank foreclosures?
Will I be laughed at, or not taken seriously, if I put in an offer for about half of the listing price? To put this in perspective, one home is listed at about 60K. It's an older modular home and needs quite a bit of work. Floors, walls, exterior, cosmetic, etc.
The work involved doesn't scare me, I've dealt with worse. There has to be some consideration for the materials and my time to make this habitable and even marketable in the future to a typical home buyer.
Sorry to get long-winded on this.
I appreciate your help on this question.
I'm hoping to utilize this site to help me spring-board into doing this as a business, a source of income and investment.
Thanks

[Jon Holdman]

If its been on the market for a relatively short time, say six months or less, then the bank is looking for something close to the asking price. A offer at 50% of the current listing price will get ignored. If its been on the market for a while, they might be more willing to listen. Over time (about once a month) they will drop the price. Eventually, it will become a good deal and it will sell.

I've also seen banks price properties low in order to draw multiple bids.