How aggressive to make offer on property that will be foreclosed in just 30 days?

[Jeremy Vohwinkle]

A few weeks ago I heard from a friend of a friend about a small commercial building with long-time tenants running a business, and they want to sell mainly due to health reasons.

Long story short and after a lot of research, an older couple sold the building to their son and his wife via land contract back in 2004. A year later, the son's dad dies and the property is deeded to his estate. A few years go by and the son fulfills the land contract and owns the property himself. Then there's a gap in recorded documents (at least from what I can find) and as of around 2007 the estate owns the property again, although not sure how they regained ownership.

Anyway, the son wants to sell because his mom is apparently in bad health. I've also discovered that they haven't paid property taxes in a few years and the county has a certificate of forfeiture on the property and they only have until March 31 to redeem it.

Obviously, this is a very short amount of time, and the sellers are clearly motivated due to the situation. Obviously, you don't want to take advantage of someone, but how aggressive do you get when thinking about making an offer? Their asking price isn't too far off of market value, but could probably come down a bit. But knowing what I know now, I'd clearly like to offer a lot less given the circumstances.

Just curious what your thoughts are. I have a meeting with the son in a few hours, and don't anticipate making an offer today because I need to get a copy of tax returns and other financials first, but given the short window of time to act, I need to be ready to make a move if everything looks good.