Should I offer below listed price? How much below? Should I offer full price? Should I offer over list price? Do a little research before submitting your offer on the home of your dreams and get the best deal.

If you went to a car dealer and somebody was selling a worked over pick up for $20,000 and you offered them $15,000 and they agreed you might think you are getting a good deal. But without understanding what the vehicle was worth up front would make the seller the winner. Most folks know what vehicles are worth but when it comes to houses they generally just look at the price. Do your prep before submitting an offer.

Try to figure out what houses in the neighborhood are selling for. If you have got a Realtor have them do a CMA for you. Work out the market valuation for the home. You can run your own CMA on local property sites such as Seattle Real Estate Listings. After you find out what it’s worth then you can pick out the best negotiating strategy. Sometimes you will offer below list price but for the good houses sometimes you've got to pay over.

Good homes sell quick. Your best plan is to put in an offer before everybody else does. Try and act quick and get the seller to sign off on an offer so you have it locked up. A home that's priced really well can last less than a couple of days. Often you'll have to offer full price or over for these bargains. It’s tough to offer over full price but if you do your research and the home is priced way less than your research shows then it'll make it a very easy call.

After your research if you find a home is priced at about the valuation and its been on the market for a bit with little activity then you know it’s most likely still slightly over priced. See how long its been on the market without a price change.

If it's been around 40 days or so then there should be a price fall coming or at a minimum the seller must be pondering it. Take that into account when putting in an offer. They will most likely drop it by 5 % and that should give you a further 3-5 percent to negotiate for a total of about 8-10 % off the listed price.

If you find the house is overpriced then you'll be compelled to chuck in a low ball offer. No-one likes a low ball offer but you can increase your chance of getting the home by showing the sellers where you got your price from. Hopefully they will listen to you. If not, just track the home until the home price drops down to where you want it to be. A lot of times if you watch it it's possible to get a superior deal on price drop than if the sellers would of accepted it in the 1st place.

So do your homework before submitting an offer. Homes will either be priced high, low, or at market value. Each one includes its own play book. The more research the better, but be prepared to make calls. A large amount of people will loose out on their dream home because they cannot make calls. They often can’t make calls because they do not do their homework.

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