Making a win offer in todays market

[Garrett Fox]

Hey All... Thought this might be an interesting post considering the roller coaster market we are currently in.  Curious your thoughts on how I could have approached an offer I recently made on a property or if you have any insight on how a buyer should approach putting an offer in on a property they really like.  Purely for example, I was really excited about a property listed at 199k so placed a cash offer with zero contingencies of 205k thinking it would be a solid offer.  Seller took two days to collect offers and wrote us later saying offer was "in the running" but could we do better, they also said 225K would lock it in.  I am really kicking myself now, but I countered with 212k and lost the property - I was comfortable paying up to 220.  Obviously every market is different, but just in general in todays market how do you approach this?   Is the "throw your best offer on the table" right out of the gate the best approach?   I feel any desirable property rarely goes for asking price.  Curious on your insight.. 

[Joe Villeneuve]

Are you a REI or do you want to collect properties? So you have to ask yourself, "did I want the property or the deal?" We don't know what the important numbers were (cash flow, cost to you...as in down payment, actual PV based on local comps), so there's no way to judge if this was a deal or not.

I've offered more than the AP and got better "deals" than someone who offered less than AP, just because of the terms I offered as part of the deal...and no, an all cash offer wasn't part of the offer.  (I would never offer all cash.  I would never make a profit.)