Buying other half of duplex

[Samuel Luebbe]

We own half of a duplex in the Midwest. Recently the owner (also the builder) of the other side has decided he does not want to own as much properties and wants to sell some of his portfolio. His agent has reached out to our agent and asked if we were still interested in buying the other side. We had asked him earlier when we bought our side and he was at a 105k price point and we had bought our side on a foreclosure at around 80k (very good shape) so we said we would offer him 87 at that time and he said he was not interested.

Moving forward, now he wants to sell and he said he wants 95k. It will also come with a tenant who has been there for 4 years and just renewed the lease.

This town we are buying in is not the easiest town to sell properties. It is a military town so renter turnover is every 2-3years or sooner.

Just on this street there are about 5-8 homes in foreclosure so we don’t want to over pay for something that will not be easy to sell if we ever decide to sell. The home is appraised at 105-110k. It rents at 1k so it does fall in the 1% rule at his price point.

My question is where would we start to make an offer that is not going to make anyone unhappy? Should we ask a lower price like 90k and ask for him to pay closing? Just looking to see what others have done or any advice.