What to offer on Commercial Reo?

[Matt Byrants]

Can anyone offer advice on this situation?

I am making an offer on a bank owned commercial condo unit. It has been vacant for 4 years, bank owned and on the market for more than 2 and a half years. The bank owns two commercial condo units in the building, my business is currently rent one of the units from the bank and the offer to purchase will be for the other unit (vacant). The asking price is $160 and was reduced once about a year ago from $175. I have been renting the other unit for 14 months and during that time not a single interested buyer has asked to walk through it. I want to make a REALLY low offer, but I also REALLY want to get it. The unit is in really rough shape and will need about 40k in renovations to make it work for my business. It is being sold As-Is and while cosmetically it is in terrible shape I am confident that there are no major problems with the unit, because I have been renting the other duplicate unit and have had no major issues. Which do you think would be a stronger offer.

75k starting offer contingent on financing with 90 day closing. With financing I would maybe be willing to pay up to $110 for it.

Or

55-65k cash with less contingencies and shorter closing. 65K is about as high as I can go if paying cash in order to have enough left over for renovations and business cash flow. Is this completely crazy? I would sort of like to go the cash route to speed things up if possible. Are they more likely to take a super low offer if it is cash vs. financed?

If anyone could offer any advice that would be great! I do already have a broker that I am working closely with, but additional opinions would be helpful. I cannot seem to find any information online about this because it seems like a unique situation with the property being on the market for 2.5 years. Thanks!