Probate Lead

[Alton Phouvong]

Hello everybody! I'm looking for suggestions or comments. Any would be greatly appreciated. I've recently met with a seller that I've got through a yellow letter probate lead campaign. He's not in a rush to sell because he didn't plan on his wife passing 4 months ago. He feels he should downgrade. His house has an ARV of $210k and from my repairs estimate is about $10-15k. The comparables 2 are in January 2013 and 2 in November & December 2012. My numbers tell me that I should buy at maximum allowable offer should be no more then $127k. I made him a starting offer at $114k and he said that would be too low.
Do you guys think that if my offer is too lowl that I should of just told him my MAO @ $127 on my intial bid ? And also since he declined the $114K offer, you guys think that I should of attempted to lease option the deal? If so do you guys have any strategy in mind to make the deal work? This has been on my mind all day and I thought this S.O.S. on BP would maybe help me fine tune my wholesale skills. Thank you for any constructive criticisim or help in advance!