Negotiating to $115k below asking - how do they do it?

[Aliz Raksi]

Hello! Every once in a while I come across a listing like this one, where the buyers had negotiated the price of a property down by as much as 30%. In this case, a property listed for $389k sold within a month for $115k below asking. I wish I could take the buyers out for lunch and ask them how they did this! Has anyone here ever done similar negotiations? What's your strategy? Do you put a higher offer just to get under contract, knowing that you will lower your price during the inspection period as problems surface? But what could possibly come up to justify such a price reduction? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

And my takeaway: always put offers! You never know what you can get the property for unless you try.

[John Hixon]

@Aliz Raksi The last two houses I put under contract were $72,000 and $93,000 under the ARV. You just need to do enough marketing in order to find the sellers who need to sell. Both of the houses were rentals and the owners where sick and tired of being landlords and just wanted out of the business. I made them an offer and they took it because the houses needed a lot of work and they wanted nothing to do with fixing them up to sell them. There are plenty of deals out there you just need to let people know you are buying and they will call.