All Forum Posts by: Jay Hawlader

My mindset is that you shouldn't be listening to people on reddit.

I don't want to come across as being mean or too aggressive so just know this feedback is solely because I care about helping you out and I feel like somebody needs to tell it like it is.

It is extremely irresponsible to invest nearly a half a million dollars of your hard earned money based on the feedback of a bunch of people from reddit, especially considering many of those people have probably never even bought a house before.

Get off of reddit. Keep asking real estate questions on biggerpockets because that's what this forum is solely focused on but still take everything that every one of us says with a grain of salt (myself included). We're all just a bunch of strangers on the internet.

Stick to your initial underwriting. It does not matter if you offer 18% off of listing price. It does not matter if you offer 70% off of list price. You need to offer what makes sense and what the house is worth to you. Which you have already established is $430k.

In your original post you said that based on your thorough analysis, your goal was to get the property for less than 440k, ideally 430k to be in line with the comps.

If you put in an offer for 440k, you will not get the property for less than 440k, let alone 430k.

What feedback from this thread lead you to believe that it was a good plan to offer more than the property was worth?

@Jay Hawlader

This is alittle different than an investment property. The numbers (other than whether or not you can afford it) don't really matter. The question is whether or not you want it for the price listed.

You don't know the sellers situation (probably). It is complelty plausible they are sitting on an offer at 490k and are trying to squeeze extra money out. If you want to live there offer what it is worth to you, don't just try to get a "deal". Ive lost too many opportunities trying to get a deal and have had to learn the hard way. It is important to not over pay but will you feel good about it seeing it sell for 490 or will you be satisfied knowing it sold more than you were willing to pay? Only you and your partner can answer that question.

Great analysis for your first home. Nice job.

I say submit the offer. The worst that can happen is they either say no, or they don't respond at all. That's the worst that can happen. So why not submit it and see what happens? The home has already been on the market 95 days so clearly they are priced too high, and they should know it.

If your realtor is good and their realtor is good, they will work together to get a deal done.

Your realtors job will be to explain to the seller realtor why you are coming in so low.

And their realtors job will be to get their seller to come down on price, within reason.

You never know the sellers circumstances. Sometimes you'll find a seller who just wants the place gone, and the only reason they are priced so high is because their realtor misguided them and priced the place too high right out of the gate.

This is a pretty common tactic with new investors..the truth is you can't "logic" a lowball offer with a seller, you'll look like a jerk and you'll never get a property that way. 

I'm not saying that it's impossible to get someone to accept a lowball offer, but those situations are anomalies and it's totally random. 

Your time is much better spent networking and looking for opportunites in your market that come through those relationships than blindly throwing out offers that have little to no chance of getting a response, let along acceptance. It'll take some time, but as you build relationships and get deals done, your pipeline will start to pay off in spades. 

When you make random lowball offers, you don't build relationships and often others in your market won't take you seriously, which has the opposite effect. 

Best of luck!

I'd put in the offer, tbh. If $440 is where your numbers lie then that's where your numbers lie, and you always want to set a low anchor. 

If the seller 'poo poos' it and doesn't counter, then you can wait a week or two to see if it's still on the market and submit the offer again. I never worry too much about what the other person will think. I'm sending in a $700,000 offer on a property that's listed at $1.175 million because that's what the numbers justify. 

@Jay Hawlader

Good luck in law school we all need good lawyers. I would attend meetups and Real Estate Investment Association (REIA) meetings. These will speed up your learning process. An agents license would give you access to the MLS, it could help you in investing. There are a number of investors who use it just to find deals when they hit the market or right before; pre market properties.