Should I ask for repair concessions or just walk in with a full price offer?

Trevor, I'm not familiar with the Boise market but here in central Indiana if a property sits the price usually drops. Also, weeks can mean anything so I'm assuming at least 6 weeks (anything under that here in Indiana is not that long in this market) and you might be able to offer slightly less than asking. Look, if you want the house, go with the strongest and fairest (to you) offer you can muster. Make sure your contingencies are solid and work in your favor and lean on your agent. If they disagree - why? They'll hopefully have some real insight as to how the market is running there and help you put your best foot forward. Good luck - hope you get it!! Becki Cronin, FC Tucker Co - licensed in Indiana

If the house has been sitting for several weeks, I wouldn't automatically lowball it just because you think you have leverage. The better strategy depends on how the home is priced relative to comparable sales and how much competition you're facing. A full-price offer can be attractive to the seller because it gets the negotiation started from a strong position and may make your offer stand out. But you should also understand what you're agreeing to before making that offer. If your inspection later uncovers significant problems, your ability to request repairs or concessions depends on the purchase agreement and the inspection contingency. That's why I generally wouldn't recommend offering full price with the assumption that you'll simply "get it back" through repairs later. Price and inspection negotiations are two separate pieces of the transaction. A seller may agree to your offer today but become much less flexible later, particularly if the issues discovered are minor or were reasonably apparent before you made the offer. On the other hand, if the property has been on the market for a while and the comps support a lower price, making a reasonable below-asking offer may be appropriate. Your agent should be able to show you recent comparable sales, days on market, price reductions, and how the asking price compares with the home's actual market value. I'd focus on the numbers rather than the tactic: What is the home worth today, what issues are already known, and what does the market tell you? If the house is fairly priced, a strong offer with appropriate inspection protections may make sense. If it's overpriced, negotiating the purchase price upfront may be better than hoping to negotiate it down after inspection. Juan Picos Real Estate Agent JohnHart Real Estate

If the house has been sitting for several weeks, a full-price offer can be a strong strategy if you really want the property. But I wouldn't make the offer assuming the seller will automatically agree to repairs or concessions later. Once you're under contract, your inspection contingency may give you an opportunity to negotiate based on what the inspection actually finds. You could potentially request specific repairs, a credit, or another adjustment, depending on the terms of your purchase agreement. However, the seller is not necessarily obligated to agree to your requests. Lowballing upfront can save you money if the seller accepts it, but it can also cause you to lose the property before you ever get to the inspection stage. I'd look at the home's current market value, how long it's been listed, any price reductions, and comparable sales before deciding. If the home is fairly priced and you really want it, a strong offer with appropriate inspection protections may make more sense than trying to negotiate every potential repair before you even own the property. Your agent should also help you understand exactly what your inspection contingency allows you to negotiate and what deadlines apply. Juan Picos Real Estate Agent JohnHart Real Estate

If the market is such that a lowball will get you nowhere, then don't do that. In order to negotiate on repairs, it's necessary for the offer to first be accepted. Offering full price or close to it, will actually get you the house, after which you can then worry about negotiating for repairs. If repairs are indeed needed...

Trevor, price and post-inspection concessions are not interchangeable, and the reason is a financing rule most buyers never hear about until it bites them: a seller credit toward your closing costs cannot exceed your actual closing costs. A price reduction has no such ceiling. That one sentence decides your question more than any negotiating theory will. Amber is right that your first move is to figure out why the house has been sitting, and I would do that before deciding anything below. What follows is the constraint that governs the choice once you know. Here is what it means in practice. Say the inspection comes back with fourteen thousand dollars of real work, and your total closing costs and prepaids add up to eight thousand. The seller can credit you the eight and not one dollar more. Anything above your actual closing costs stops being a credit and gets treated as a sales concession, which means it is deducted from the sales price for loan purposes and your loan-to-value gets recalculated. Fannie Mae spells this out in the Selling Guide, and the other programs work the same way. There are also program caps sitting on top of that, though they rarely bind on a normal purchase: Conventional runs 3 percent of value if you are above 90 percent loan-to-value, 6 percent from 75.01 to 90, and 9 percent at 75 or below. FHA allows up to 6 percent of the sales price. VA allows 4 percent of the established reasonable value, and notably does not count the seller simply paying your closing costs against that 4 percent. USDA allows 6 percent. Read that list and then forget it, because on most deals the binding constraint is not the program cap. It is the size of your own closing costs. So, to your actual question. Your agent is not wrong that a full price offer is a strong play on a listing that has been sitting. It is clean, it flatters a discouraged seller, and it tends to get accepted. But it does two things you should go in knowing. It sets your appraisal ceiling at full price, and it moves all of your remaining leverage into the inspection period, where the only tool that has no cap is a price reduction, not a credit. What I would do in your shoes: Offer at a number you would be happy with if the inspection came back perfectly clean. Do not offer a price that only makes sense if you claw money back later. Keep a real inspection contingency, and make sure it gives you the right to request repairs, a price reduction, or a credit, not just a credit. When the number that comes out of the inspection is large, ask for a price reduction. When it is small and you are tight on cash to close, ask for a credit. Choosing the wrong one of those two is where people leave money on the table. Before you write anything, get the seller's disclosures and ask whether the house has been under contract before. Weeks on market on a house that is otherwise fine very often means a previous buyer already walked over something, and the inspection you are about to pay for may already exist. One honest caveat: I am a real estate professional, not a lender. Before you commit to the credit route, have your loan officer confirm your program's cap and give you an estimate of your actual closing costs, because that estimate is the real number that limits you. I work in California, on the South Bay and Palos Verdes side of Los Angeles, so I am not going to pretend to read the Boise market for you. A strong local agent there will judge that seller's motivation better than I can. But the math above travels anywhere, and if you want a second set of eyes on a specific number before you sign, I am Zoltan Peresztegi and I am happy to walk through it with you. Zoltan

Trevor, this heavily depends on the market you are purchasing in. Some markets are much hotter than other markets. Additionally, the price in relation to the current comparable sales is going to be your most important indicator. Keith Jean-Pierre Managing Principal The Dapper Agents Real Estate Operations in ALL 50 States

There's no universal right answer here — it depends on why the house has been sitting. If it's been sitting because it's overpriced, a full price offer doesn't fix that. You'd be paying full price for a home the market has already told you is worth less. In that case, negotiate on price now, not later. If it's been sitting for reasons unrelated to price — slow season, bad photos, a stale listing that needs a refresh — then a strong offer can actually get you more leverage after inspection. Sellers who've had a listing linger often get anxious. Once you're in contract and they've mentally moved on, they're usually more willing to fix things or credit you at closing rather than risk the deal falling apart and relisting. The strategy that tends to work best: figure out why it's been sitting before you decide your approach. Pull the days on market, check if there's been a price drop already, and ask your agent what feedback other buyers have given. That tells you whether you have room to negotiate price, or whether you're better off coming in strong and using the inspection as your leverage point instead. One thing I'd caution against: don't lowball and expect concessions later. Pick one lever. If you come in low and then nickel and dime the seller after inspection too, you risk souring the negotiation entirely and losing the house to a cleaner offer. If you want more detail on how to structure the offer itself, I wrote about this here: 4 Tips to Make Your Strongest Offer on a Home. And if you're curious about how much leverage buyers currently have in negotiations, that's covered here too: Buyers Have More Negotiation Power, Here's How to Use It. Amber Amber Johnson, Founder Pillar Real Estate 805.835.3425 [email protected] 1345 Park St. Paso Robles, CA 93446 DRE# 01925434