Is our potential condo purchase a good deal?

[Brendan Francis]

Our agent is telling us that if we offered $400k for this condo, it could be viewed as disrespectful and damage negotiations from the outset (he would prefer offering $415-$420 and moving up from there if there is a counteroffer). He/she is telling us this is not a buyer's market (condo market in Boston even with COVID) and then he/she proceeded to go through all the other condos we requested to and found something wrong with each one of them (he didn't do this for the condo we are close to making an offer on though). I hate to think this, but maybe he/she is trying to make it seem like we don't have much leverage in this situation so that we are more willing to make this deal. We already decided what our upper limit is for a condo purchase price. Maybe he/she wants to get us to that so he can make his company more money. Can anyone comment and help us figure out how much leverage we have here and whether a $400k offer is an insult? Any other thoughts are appreciated. Thank you.