The seller will probably be advised by his realtor to not even look at offers until after the open house.

It's for sale by owner. No realtors involved. And this is very much a buyers market.

Probably better to wait for time to pass if you're wanting a rock bottom offer to win. The odds are you may lose the house to other home buyers.

If you present too low of an offer, they may just ignore it. Different thing if the house was vacant and no one living there.

Over pay is subjective when buying a house, because you will always be paying for something with home ownership. Over paying is prerequisite to home ownership. Better make sure you really want it, otherwise buyer's remorse sets in.

Make an offer as soon as possible, for $410K, and point out they won't have to pay the 10K commission. You might also want to tell them that you are flexible with the closing time, if that is the case, since they may not have planned for such a fast sale. Give them a week to respond, then wait. The offer is high enough not to be insulting, so they may negotiate even if they wait for the open house and have other offers. On the other hand, they may go for the bird in hand. Or they may expect a bidding war :) What is in their heads you can't control, but if somebody will make an offer at the open house and they decide to accept, you will be sorry for not acting earlier. You have an interest, make it known.

An offer of $410 sounds about right, but if I give them a week, then they can use my offer as leverage. I'm thinking of giving them 12-24 hours, and have my offer expire before the open house.

Sure, why not? My thinking is that before the open house they will be more likely to refuse outright thinking they can do better, especially for a FSBO (a realtor will advise them to accept your offer, which is totally reasonable). My style would be to give them until after the open house to respond, perhaps at the end of that day. In a buyer's market a mention of an existing offer will often scare other buyers off, especially if the house has a number of things going against it. But yes, there is always a risk no matter what you do. If you want the house no matter what, put in a full price offer and give them 12-24 hrs. The difference in a monthly mortgage payment will be minimal.

Make sure that the $410 you want to offer isn't too high either. No fireplace takes off about $5,000 on a comp listing. And near a train track, depending on the type of train will take off a lot more. (A commuter train will not be as big a deductible as freight trains)

Also if all you want to pay is a maximum of $410, then you're not leaving yourself any bargaining room. If it's only worth $410, then start at $400 or $405, so when they come back with a counter, you can counter with your final.

Geeze, what's with you and houses near train tracks? A man whose childhood dreams of owning a set of electric trains, was unfulfilled?

I would NOT buy a house near train tracks, no matter how "good" a deal it is. It will be VERY difficult to sell.

You say the house went on the market TODAY?? Have you even looked at it? And, if not, how do you know it's worth $410K?

An immediate offer, like within a day or two of putting the house on the market, will have the owners rubbing their hands together with glee. We sold a house once within 22 hours of listing. We got our asking price in cash.

Angle, he explained that in another post. He wants more house than he can buy otherwise, and he doesn't mind the train tracks. In bigger cities (at least in Canada) it's not as much of a financial risk as it would be otherwise. And the Canadian tax system works completely differently when it comes to the principal residence. I think he has thought this through.

As an update to my situation: I presented an offer of $410k yesterday (listed is $430k), and also added that I wanted the washer & drier included along with a few other items that weren't included in the sellers inclusions. They countered me at $425k, and will include the washer and dryer etc. So depending how you look at it, you could see it as the sellers coming down to $423 if you figure the washer and dryer are worth $2k.

My goal was to settle at $420k, but I can see why the sellers aren't moving much since the house has been on the market 2 days and they haven't had their open house yet. If I want the house, it's my as long as I accept by 1:00pm today. Other option is I gamble and wait to see if it doesn't sell and maybe the sellers lower their price. Thing is the sellers are willing to wait until June of next year which is the move-in date of their new house they are building.

Thinking I'll accept...not worth losing over $3k. I might be over paying by ~10k, but we do really like the house and we've been looking at houses now for ~6 months and have looked at probably close to 100 houses. Thoughts?

Yeah looking for pre-existing housing for something you really want... I just recently bought and had been looking for 2 years in my desired area.

I can't tell you how many I lost out on I quit counting after 6, 10, 15 or whatever the official number was.

You have an inspection contingency and right to reneg. after?

Yes, home inspection is a condition in the offer.

You did fine, even though I would have advised doing another counter offer. But, since you have been looking at hundreds of homes and finally found one that fits, then $3000 is nothing to lose a home over.

ncrealestateguy: I have until 1:00pm today, so have not yet accepted. I could do a counter offer, but then ball is out of my court. Thinking I will just accept.

I did an analysis of comparables in the area of similar homes and it's right in line with the average of approximately $250 per square foot.

No used washer and dryer are worth $2000. I could buy a set today for a few hundred, brand new.

I'd counter with your $420 and I bet they take it. Saves them loads of trouble for showing.

Do you know what you are doing legally? If not, get an attorney. You will likely need to provide a pre-approval letter right away and you need to make sure you get the disclosures required by your area and set up an inspection right away.

We paid $4000 over the appraised value of our home 32 years ago. It would have cost us nearly that much to make repeated trips from CA to KY and we might have ended up having to rent and move twice. We've never regretted that decision.

If you need a mortgage, do you have a contingency clause of obtaining a mortgage? Do you have an attorney to review your offer before it is final?

I'm already pre-approved for Mortgage up to certain amount, and this home is under that amount. And yes I included subject to lawyer approval in the offer.

Yes and the interest rate is locked in until end of December.

I'd counter back at $420. Remember they've got the same "it's not worth losing a buyer over a few thousand" mentality.

I guess I'm more aggressive than most of you. I'd have countered somewhere about $416-418k figuring that their counter was the first move on their part and they were probably figuring you might come back and split the difference. They either accept (my guess), come back splitting the difference again -- right about $420, or say $423k -- best offer and you haven't lost anything. Once you are negotiating, they are invested in making the deal too. BUT, if you really need to get the house or don't have the patience for negotiating, it's not enough to lose the house over.

Assuming you accepted their offer -- hope things go smoothly for you.

You really wanted the house and the sellers were prepared to wait a while, so your options were limited. But finding the house of your dreams -- priceless. Keeping fingers crossed that the inspection goes well.

Thanks for keeping us posted. Sounds like things are proceeding smoothly.

Great to hear this worked out for you!

We bought FSBO early on and paid a few thousand more than we wanted to initially (about 2 percent difference at the time). We did not get any benefit of the lack of sales commission, but we got the house that we wanted at or slightly above market price. That has more than recouped itself over the last 20 plus years in quality of life. IMHO if you have been looking for a while and the right house comes along, it is not worth nickel and diming. You are ready to jump on it quickly and with a good offer that is workable for the sellers.