Making an Offer - episode 1

Now that we have a real estate agent lined up, it's time to start thinking about making an offer. What is land worth? Cleared vs. wooded is an obvious concern, and a perc test and/or septic design are obvious price uppers since work has been done; but for pristine, unexplored land, who is to say what it's worth?

The plot we are looking at runs a few thousand under $100,000 and has a few acres to it. That, in the world of real estate, is called an asking price. Apparently no one offers on the asking price. You low ball it. But as newbies to this process, how much do you low-ball? That's where the advice of our Realtor is useful, but even she can only advise. We asked her about offering 85% of the asking price, and she said it wouldn't be too low. But it might not be taken seriously, either. Steve thinks keeping the ten-thousand number the same is magic: offering $60,000 on a $69,000 asking price (purely as an example).

I suppose we'll find out soon as we're having the paperwork drafted as I type.

Stay tuned!