Advice needed to negotiate with bank on a cash offer to short sales

[Ellen Z.]

first time poster and a green hand, seeking advice.
I am interested in purchasing a short sale property.

The seller bought in 2005 for 440K.
short sale listed around 275K about a month ago,
recently reduced the price to 248K.
I called the seller agent to show me the property. So he asked and knew I did not work with a buyer agent.

He declared "dual agency" when he saw me at the property. (I was thinking about asking whether he is interested in dual agency, but before I did that, he told me he is now dual agent if I want to buy this property.... so I take this as he is motivated in pushing this deal through)

The property is filled with "stuffs" (or maybe I shall say junk), has dirty carpets, loud dogs and dog **** on the deck. I will need an inspector to look it over more carefully, but I think it is in good shape and the repairs should be less than 10k.

I believe the comps is about 330K, with the 70% rule,
330K X 0.7 - 10K repairs = 221K.

That's the max price I am willing to pay in cash (cash offer, no financing) for this.

Need your advice on what price to offer in the first offer. Shall I put 221K or maybe a little bit above hoping to get something in repair credit to meet my 221K goal?
or Shall I start with say 205K and tell the agent this is for bank to look at and counter?

ps. the agent informed me that there was only one bank/lender in this short sale. A few shows in the past month, but no offer has been submitted yet, so no idea what price bank might accept.

[Yvette Hernandez]

Hi
Hope you are off to a wonderful start in the new year.
First anytime a RE agent shows a property that you are interested in buying and don't have an agent with you, the agent showing the house automatically become dual agent.

The short sale now, if you have not signed a purchase offer yet make sure you are transparent with the lender. You have the right to negotiate the price yourself no need for a rep needed you are the buyer. The lender will request a BPO, and the agent will be notified of the date when they will go out to the property. Since you may not influence the BPO here is something might want to hand to the BPO agent get comps usually homes that have sold in the last 30 days and similar to size and a 1 Mile radius in differance. Have the home inspected make sure you get a contractors and several bids for the work that needs to be done deduct all fees including one (for the dogs) to find a home deduct it from the lowest comp. Put all your bids, inspection reprt and comps compiled together with the comps at the bottom of the packet staple together. Have your agent let you know when the lenders BPO agent will be at the property let him or her know you are the potential buyer and hand him the the packet.cross your fingers and hope that the BPO will come out to be a realistic price, Pull title and check the taxes and if HOA fees this will effect your profit if you plan on marketing the property after you acquire it. you do not need to put in a price for the purchase in the agreement, just state to be determined after BPO. Hope this helps
Thank You
Yvette Hernandez
efsrep@live,com