How far below asking price should I offer on a home for sale right now in the Denver area?

I'm trying to find true comps for some kind of measure, but the fact of the matter is that NOTHING has sold in the last 6 months that could be considered a comp. They've been for sale that long, or longer, but nothing has sold. When I bought my first house in 1995, the realtor told me that a house on the market over 120 days meant something was wrong with it. Probably the price. Does that mean that virtually all homes are overpriced right now, and the market is in the process of correcting? Do I just forget about buying right now, or make a real low offer and see what happens. I wouldn't pay full price for a home right now, even if it were perfect.How far below asking price should I offer on a home for sale right now in the Denver area?
I would make a low offer.. you have nothing to lose and the realtor HAS to submit your offer. If they give you crap.. give it right back and tell them they have to submit your offer..





You could always go directly to the owners by looking up who owns the property at the recorders office.





Actually.. that's a good idea.. you should go to the recorder's office and see how much they owe against the property.. if they owe 80% and you are offering only 60% .. you would be wasting your time.. they can't sell it to you.. and what if they owe 100%.How far below asking price should I offer on a home for sale right now in the Denver area?
2-3% below
This is a good article when you are ready to put in your bid:


http://biz.yahoo.com/brn/060909/19463.ht鈥?/a>





If you can wait, I believe the market will lower as much as 15 to 20%.





How to value a property during market downturn?





Housing market continues to slump. Now we can calculate true value of a property easily. As price decline, we don't need to guess and factor in the potential price appreciation while calculating home value. Without the guesswork, figures are more accurate.





Let's use following example:





Today, a typical 15 years old, two bedrooms condo/townhouse is priced around $500,000 and $550,000 in Sunnyvale, California. Rent for similar condo/townhouse is $2000/month.





If you are a home owner, $2,000/month in rent means $20,000 a year in profit ($24,000 per year in rent, minus $4,000 maintenance costs). A $20,000 income is equilevant of owning $400,000 bonds or CDs, because current yield of 30 Years U.S. treasuries are 5% (5% of $400,000 is $20,000). Bank CDs have similiar yields.





In our example, the two bedrooms condo/townhouse is 20% to 25% overpriced. They should be priced at $400,000.





It is interesting to note that if we redo the calculation from buyer's perspective instead of seller's perspective, the figures are even more shocking.





Mortgage payment consists of two parts: mortgage interests and mortgage principal. The interests portion is similar to rent. If you pay interest, it disappears and doesn't add equity to the property. To fully simulate characteristics of renting, we assume buyer will apply for a zero down, interest-only loan.





It turns out that rent of $2000/month is equivelant to mortgage payment of a $340,000 loan at 7.0% APR. And comparing $340,000 loan to $500,000 or $550,000 price tag, from buyer's view, the two bedrooms condo/townhouse is 30% to 35% overpriced.





One may ask, why is there a discrepancy between two perspectives of the buyer and owner?





The discrepancy is a result of 2% differences in interest rate that buyer borrow comparing to yields of bonds and CDs that owners would get. We understand that buyer would always pay more. That is the premium of buying to own. However, looking from home owner's perspective, current housing market is probably 20% to 25% overpriced. We recommand investors to wait for a better entry point.
$20,000
wait until it's about to snow, then offer half price, take it or leave it.
It's a buyers market now, so you have more leverage and options when purchasing a house. If nothing has sold in the past six months and there are alot of active listing use the active listings as comps. What are people offering for their home, is it less than the house you want to buy? If nothing is selling that could likely mean people are asking too much. Throw a low ball offer out there the worst they could do is refuse the offer or counter offer. If they are smart and have a smart realtor they will consider every offer they get because I'm sure they aren't getting any.
5% OF THE ASKING PRICE
Usually a seller will accept an offer 10% less than the asking price give or take a little... Using this as a guide line, make an offer about 12-15% less than asking and negotiate up... It is a buyers market, don't be afraid to get crazy however, throw a low ball offer out, you might be surprised and they might start negotiating off of that low price and you could end up saving thousands. If the house has been on the market for awhile with very few hits the seller might be entertaining ANY offers. In today's market you cant really worry bout comps, there has been such huge fluctuations over the past 12 months, even if they are used they could be off 10's of thousands of dollars. Look at the house and ask yourself what YOU think it is worth and are willing to pay for it. After all you are the one that will be living there paying the mortgage for the next 30 years :)