If the house hasn't been listed long and if I were the seller, I would really, really want to wait until after the open house before discounting much of anything. So if there was any wiggle room in your offer, I'd string it out... You offer with 48 hours to respond - I'd use all 48 hours of it, then counter back to you with a long response time. You counter back - again, I'd wait until the last second before responding. I'd try to arrange it so I have an offer on the table with a few days to respond at OH time and could use that to tip any interested buyers into a bidding war.

Now 2-3 days after the open house, if I hadn't received any other offers, I'd be much more receptive to a discount...

How strong is the market in your area?
And how desireable is the house?
If you really, really want this house and are afraid of losing it, I'd make a good "one time, best and final offer" with a decision date well before the OH.

The lack of your selling contigency is probably worth 30-60 days of their carry costs, perhaps more but the Open House is just a few days later ...
Tough call.

How reasonable is their asking price for the neighborhood? I'd look at the comps and then decide how much and when to offer. We offered 5K OVER asking price the day before the open house for our soon-to-be new-to-us house. We did this because the seller underpriced the house for the purpose of selling quickly (and probably was hoping to get multiple offers after the OH). We wanted the house, knew the comps, and so offered 5K above asking price (our offer was not over the top for the neighborhood) and asked them to reply to our offer by 10pm that night. They accepted our offer. We felt good because we knew we offered a fair price, and we avoided being involved in a bidding war.

If it's true that Open Houses rarely bring offers, then you probably have nothing to worry about.
The last few open houses in my neighborhood have brought in nobody except neighbors!

We are waiting to hear from our realtor on the Thursday second showing and comps. The house is priced well. Not supper great, but well. There are consmetic things that need to be done in there. Old windows need to be reaplaced (one is broken). Tons of horible wall paper. Carpet upstair will need to be replaced. Deck refinished. But it all cosmetic.

The thing is, I like the house, but I am not ready to be offering full asking priced. I would like to end up paying $415K which is 97% of asking, so we would not be asking for much of a reduction. We were also tald that the seler is motivated and wants to get out.

So we heard from our realtor. We are going back for a second showing on Thursday.

The only concern I have is that she mentioned that the seller will be home.

Not sure if it is good or bad.

He was home during the first showing and he was nice, did not bother us or anything.

But I am a bit concerned about the second showing as I do not want to appear too eager.

Relax, and breathe!
Relax and breathe!

Don't worry about the open house. They rarely bring in offers.

Don't give your top offer at first, The 400k seems reasonable for a first offer. Expect to go back and forth.

Remember to buy with your head , not your heart. Don't get emotionally invested.

I'd offer 24 hour turn around, not 48 hrs.
That's plenty of time, and allows a whole round of back and forth.

I absolutely agree with kartwheel about making your offer good for 24 hours. Now that you know the seller is around town, that's plenty of time for him to respond.

I gave my sellers 24 hours to respond to the offer. My agent was just leaving with the signed accepted offer when another woman showed up with her offer. Boy, was she mad!

Let us Know!

Ask your realtor to request that the seller not be home for the second showing. Its a common practice. She can simply say you want to feel free to discuss the home in detail while in the home. There is no way to avoid them knowing this is the second time you are going there, but remember, you could also be ruling it out.

If the owner being home bothers you, ask that they leave. We had a 2nd showing 2 weeks ago, we were actually here for both showings but went outside to work in the garden. They had questions for us & I think appreciated us being here as they could come outside to ask the question, then sit back down to talk. They did this both days. I'm sure the wife has more questions as she couldn't remember them all.

We're doing an open next Sunday and I hope someone is thinking to make us an offer before hand! lol

IMO, the house being on for 9 months means nothing to me. The market stinks really bad in so many areas. Every time you open the newspaper someone is saying something about real estate. Buyers are holding out, not knowing what to do. The spring selling season has started where I am & we are hopeful that the serious buyers will be out. For us, we just missed the busy time last year, it could be the same for other houses you're seeing that have been on for a while.

If you like the house and have been looking at other houses and know what is out there and are comfortable with making an offer on the house go for it. You can't predict the future & what will happen at the OH. While OH's usually don't sell houses, at most of the real estate forums I go to, most buyers are now shopping this way as they don't want to get a buyers agent right now while looking.

Good luck.

Also, without knowing how the window is "Broken", you may not have to replace it. Restoring windows is a very common practice if they are wood windows. That's an unknown that may NOT have to cost you anything.

Good luck.

UPDATE

We went there today and looked at the house again. Took all measurements, etc. The good thing is that we we found hardwood under carpet upstairs. The bad thing is that we found 2nd broken window and two more windows that were not functioning (i.e. not opening or openning and not staying up).

We put in an offer of $400K on $429K asking. And heard back from our realtor 4 hours later with $420K counter. We countered at $410K.

As it is 10pm right now, I do not expect to hear back until the morning.

Wish us luck and keep fingers crossed.

Sounds Good!

the window thing, in the scope of houses is small ,imo

ANOTHER UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We accepted their second counter at $415K.

Now we need to schedule inspection and go under the contract.

Quick, somebody, I need tranqualizers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BIG CONGRATES to you!

Congrats! Hope the sellers will pay to have all those windows fixed. Good Luck.

Congratulations!!!!!!! Good Luck with all the "fun" stuff ahead!

Thanks.

I just started a new thread with the results of the inspection.

Fun does not even begin to cover it. LOL