Negotiating for a state-owned commercial property

[Ryan Braman]

BLUF: I've never bought government-owned or commercial property, but I'm putting together an offer for one (government) and I'm looking for anyone else who may have bought/offered on state-owned and can provide their experience to help me frame negotiations.

About the property: State (Virginia) owned property..currently in conservation and the County will convert it to Agriculture post-sale. Mothballed facility (10+) years, costs the state $10k/month to keep up..been on the market for over a year, they are using a commercial real estate company out of Richmond. They dropped the price this summer by about $500k, I'd still like to offer significantly less than asking.  Lot of unknowns regarding the septic system..even the state isn't sure what's going on. Structures on the property need a decent amount of work. 

My motivation: The property makes sense for me b/c of the particular layout and existing infrastructure..it is the only property that I'm aware of in the entire County that I can use for a specific non-profit purpose that I've been looking for.

My concern: I've made a couple offers and purchased a few residential/multifamily properties, but I'm definitely more intimidated at the prospect of dealing with the state and/or a commercial broker. I'm not a good negotiator, I suck at building rapport, and the one thing I remember from all the podcasts/posts on negotiation is that you need to understand seller motivation/build rapport..so there is that. And I'm not sure how much that matters with the state.

My question: Anybody been here before? Negotiated for a state owned property..is it a 'normal' negotiation, should I expect them to be pretty firm on the price?