Making our first offer - what is the current protocol

[Alex Hochberger]

I bought my house in the pre-crash boom. Back then, there was a push to put in full price offers, but we put in a lowball on a house that had sat (and needed a rehab).

The market we're looking in appears to have softened a bit (we're seeing price drops), but it remains "moving." So we have a virtual tour of the house arranged for later this week when our agent is back in town, and we plan to put in an offer, here is my question:

Is putting in a lower offer still a valid way to get a conversation going?

How fast can we expect the back and forth go? Should we expect a rapid counter offer? Last time we did this, people were still scratching things off on paper forms and faxing them around.

Thanks in advanced!

[Juan V Lopez]

Hey Alex, is the house on-market? If yes, then a realtor who understands your strategy should have no issue submitting your offers quickly. It's actually their duty to submit all offers.

Personally, we're getting a lot of deals under market value in the Vegas market right now. We're sending multiple offers daily and quickly. Some sellers get back to us quickly with a yes/no. Others say no, but a good strategy I've found is leaving them with our offer with an expiration date of 7-14 days. It's different when they have a written offer in hand and a few days go by with them getting no action on their home. We've been able to lock down many deals like this lately.

Wish you guys the best brother, sounds like you have good perspective of markets to get in on this downturn again.