Over the past few weeks I have received (on behalf of my seller clients) quite a few offers that I considered to be quite low:

• $30,000 under asking price on a $300,000 house (10%)
• $30,000 under asking price on a $200,000 house (15%)
• $40,000 under asking price on a $250,000 house (16%)
  
• $60,000 under asking price on a $300,000 house (20%)

A few of these were negotiated successfully, and a few were not.  It made me wonder, however, how often buyers were really negotiating 10% or more off the asking price of a home.  So, let's take a look at a ridiculously small sample size (home sold in the past 10 days) and pick out the 5 best deals as far as the percentage that was negotiated off the listing price:

First, do note that of the 27 homes sold in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County over the last 10 days, on average, 5.4% was negotiated off of the list price. 

Now, for the houses where the buyers negotiated the highest percentage off of the list price....



4377 Hilltop Road (Massanetta Spring)  -  sold for 22% less than the list price




160 Wildwood Drive (Bridgewater)  -  sold for 15% less than the list price




253 S Sunset Drive (Broadeway)  -  sold for 11% less than the list price




2965 Pin Oak Drive (Belmont Estates)  -  sold for 10% less than the list price




545 Tabb Court (Preston Heights)  -  sold for 10% less than the list price

So, with average negotiations of 5.4%, what do you think?  Where the four offers of 10%, 15%, 16% and 20% below asking price reasonable?  Perhaps negotiations have to start somewhere!