Pitching An Offer Unofficially?

[Brian Volland]

Hi folks,

The question here is fairly simple: Is there a way to pitch an offer unofficially to gauge the seller's motivation/willingness to negotiate.

The first assumption is that it is considered unprofessional or illegal to contact a seller directly when they have a real estate agent for a property being sold. If this is not the case, obviously, that makes things a lot easier.

The longer version here is that there is a property which is listed overpriced even before investigation into it. It's a solid property in a solid location so I looked in to it anyway thinking I could negotiate during due diligence to a more reasonable price. What I've now found is that the listing information is deceptive, if not outright incorrect. To complicate things, I'd be pursuing private money to fund this deal but I don't want to waste the financial backer's time if there is no hope of a deal. SO, assuming I were to try to move forward with the property, I'd be coming back with an offer at nearly half price. I don't want to make an offer without having the money, and I don't want to try to get the money if the offer is going to fail. 

So how do you pitch an offer that's not binding so that you can go to your money lender with a firm number and not waste everyone time?