4-5 price drops is not full listing price, so if he loves you, he'll offer if not full asking, at least pretty darn close to it! Hoping it'll keep dropping is a game, but a dangerous one. There's such a thing as being too greedy (how everyone got in the mess to begin with) after all, so if you think the asking is a fair price for the house, then go for it.

I agree with larke. If you want THIS house and are willing to pay list price for the home, then offer list price. $4k isn't much. (Provided, of course, the home is actually worth the sales price.)

If you are willing to gamble and possibly lose the home, but all means offer less. There are other houses out there.

$4K is not much on a $400k home, but IS a lot on a 40K home, so unless you post the current price,opinions are really useless

It also makes a difference with a bank if you are making your offer based on a loan or a cash sale. Someone offering less money but a cash deal will win out over someone who has to wait for a loan even at a higher selling price.

OK, my fault for not giving a good background story...house was a foreclosure in Oct. 09. Was listed for just under $100,000 at that point. As I said, 4-5 price drops later, it is at $69,900. So I think that 4000 makes a difference...

A house that was 100k and has been reduced to 70k looks like a lot of work to me. Offer half, 35k, and figure on the other 35k to renovate it.

All they can say is no if they don't take it and then you can dicker with them.

We are still waiting to hear anything from the bank. This is so frustrating. We put in an offer on 2/2. The paperwork said it could take 7-10 business days to get an answer, but I am impatient. There are very few properties available in our area. Also we are limited to our area because of my husband's job...we could make this house great, I know it...I am just so nervous we won't get it!

"The paperwork said it could take 7-10 business days to get an answer..."

For REO that would be like lightening.

IF you want the place be prepared to wait MONTHS while the bank screws around.

Banks do not like to lose money, and if they are going to on a sale they will use numerous committees to make sure no single person at the bank will be held responsible.

In my area most of the banks are dealing with REO properties rather quickly. It is the short sales that take months.

My sister recently bought a REO property. They accepted the offer within a couple days. Then, they took MONTHS to close. I'm sure it depends on the bank, but to me, it seems as though some aren't only "to big to fail" but also "to big to get anything done quickly."

I've worked for a "too big to fail bank that did fail" and I've worked for the government. There is no difference in the speed or in the number of levels of management. Makes retirement wonderful!

"My sister recently bought a REO property. They accepted the offer within a couple days. Then, they took MONTHS to close."

The banks also like to put clauses in the contacts allowing them to back out if they decide at almost any point up to the closing table.

I have seen them shop accepted contracts for months hoping for something better to come along while stringing along the buyer they 'accepted.'

Do not sign a bank contract without an attorney going over it.

Well. We were informed today that our offer was rejected and they were accepting another offer. I am very upset. Does anyone have any experience with this? I am wondering if we should submit another offer because I have read that bank owned deals are never over until closing.

If you think the house is worth more, then you could. At least based upon Brickeye's comments, they are accepting offers until contract at least