I recently wrote a post entitled "Is it logical for a buyer to want 10% off of a "fair" asking price in today's economy?" where I concluded:


Yet even given that perspective, there are deals to be had in the current real estate market --- and the buyers who are making aggressive offers are usually the ones finding the great opportunities.

Here are the factors at play:

1. Most homes sell very close to their list price, which prompted the original question: Is it logical for a buyer to want 10% off of a "fair" asking price in today's economy?
2. Many buyers are hesitant to make offers too far off the list price, causing me to describe them as bashful, even way back in February 2008.
3. There are plenty of houses where the seller just won't budge much on price, because they have priced it very close to their bottom line to be competitive.  It's difficult, after all, to Price Competitively, But With Room To Negotiate, which causes The Home Pricing Conundrum: Increasing Traffic At The Expense Of Reasonable Offers

So, again -- most homes sell close to their asking price, but even if a list price has flexibility you need a buyer --- and most buyers are hesitant to offer too far below the list price, but even if they did make an aggressive offer --- most sellers won't budge too far beyond their list price. 

Thus, the stars must align --- a buyer must be willing to make an aggressive offer on a house that just so happens to have a seller who is ready to be overly flexible with their price.  The natural question here is whether this actually ever happens.  It does!  But here's how --- these buyers who want to find that "great deal" often have to make offers on multiple houses before they find the one where the seller will be flexible.

My advice to ALL buyers is to go ahead and make the offer that you think is reasonable, even if you are pretty sure the seller won't take it, and even if you aren't going to then skip around to house after house to find someone who will take your aggressive offer.