Can I negotiate a lower price if a home has been listed for several months without any price cuts?

Yes, Brad, and the way to do it without offending anyone is to make the offer about the market rather than about their house. Two data pulls do most of that work. First, ask your agent for the cumulative days on market, not just the days on market shown on the listing. Sellers and agents relist properties, and a relist resets the visible counter to zero. A house that shows forty days can easily be a hundred and forty on the cumulative number. That single figure tells you how much pressure is actually in the room, and it is often very different from what the public listing implies. Second, ask for every closed sale of a comparable home in that neighborhood over the last ninety days, with the price per square foot for each. Then compare the subject property's asking price per square foot against that set. If the seller is asking $290 and the last five closings were between $250 and $265, you now have a number that came from the market rather than from your opinion, and that is a completely different conversation. Then add the piece almost no buyer bothers with: estimate the seller's monthly carrying cost. Mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, and any HOA. Four months of that is a real number. You do not put it in the offer, but you and your agent should know it, because it tells you how much longer they can comfortably wait and it shapes how firm you should be. On presentation, keep it short and factual. Have your agent send a one-page summary with the three or four closed comparables and nothing else. No commentary about the condition of their kitchen, no explanation of why they overpriced it. Sellers get defensive about their house, not about a spreadsheet. Let the comparables be the argument and let your agent stay warm and easy to work with. Two more things that make a lower number easier to say yes to. Give them something besides price. Flexible closing date, a rent-back if they need time, a shorter inspection period, stronger earnest money, or a fully underwritten pre-approval. A seller who has been sitting for four months is often as worried about certainty as about price, and terms cost you less than dollars. Expect a counter and plan for it. Go in below your real target but not so far below that they stop responding. Your first number should be defensible with the comps you attached. If it is, you are negotiating. If it is not, you are just making noise and you will get ignored. One honest caveat. A house sitting four months without a price cut sometimes means the seller is not motivated, or is testing the market, or has a number in their head they will not go below. If your first offer gets no counter at all, that is your answer, and it is worth knowing after one week rather than after one month. I am Zoltan Peresztegi, a real estate professional in Los Angeles and the South Bay. I do not work Spokane, but I am glad to help you read the comparables, or connect you with a strong local agent through my network. Pull the cumulative days on market first. It usually changes how the whole thing looks. Zoltan

Brad, you are more than welcome to offer anything that you would like; just as the seller is not obligated to accept any offer no matter how much it is. Good luck with your purchase. Keith Jean-Pierre Managing Principal The Dapper Agents Real Estate Operations in ALL 50 States

Four months with no price cut usually tells me the seller is anchored to the number they picked on day one, Brad, not that they're fielding offers. Offers rarely offend anyone. What stings is a low number with nothing attached to explain it, so send your comps along with the offer and have your agent walk the listing agent through them. Choose sales that really are comparable in size, condition and location, and include the days on market for each so the pattern speaks for itself. Being easy to work with helps too. A flexible closing date and a solid preapproval letter carry more weight than most buyers realize. Sellers who won't budge on price will sometimes budge on terms, and a credit toward closing costs or repairs can land you in the same spot. I'm licensed in California, so check with your Spokane agent on how the Washington forms want that written up. Alla Novytska, Realtor®, JohnHart Real Estate, DRE #02254775