Spinoff to Low Balling: should you mostly look at houses above your price range?

If the "generally accepted rule of thumb" is that you can start negotiating around 15% - 20% below the asking price ...

Are you mostly looking at houses that are 10% - 15% above your price range (allowing 5% negotiating room from your original offer)?

My DH doesn't think we should look at houses above what we can afford ... he's of the mindset that we should look within our budget, and then hopefully negotiate down from there (putting us in a better financial position, rather than getting a higher priced house for the most we can afford).

Not sure if that made sense, if I didn't I'll try to clarify ...

Message edited 3/20/2008 3:52:42 PM.

Re: Spinoff to Low Balling: should you mostly looking at houses above your price range?

Yes....i'm looking at houses from $350K to $450K...i'm a low baller!
MWAAA HAAA HAAA!

We're hoping to end up with a house at $350 to $380K

Re: Spinoff to Low Balling: should you mostly looking at houses above your price range?

Well- We aren't offically looking - so I daon't have my offical # yet

but for now- I am looking about $100K more then I want to spend

not b/c I think I am going to get $100K off the price- but $50k over 30 years for a house I love it worth it to me

I guess I really have 2 numbers in my head- I have a high number - and my goal

if there are 2 houses I like- and there is a $50K difference- and the 2nd house is perfect- I will go for it -

I guess- I have a MAX price and then the price I would rather spend

if that makes any sense- it does in my head

Re: Spinoff to Low Balling: should you mostly look at houses above your price range?

Ooooh ... does this mean I get to tell my hubby that I'm right & he's wrong?

I love when that happens, its fun!

Re: Spinoff to Low Balling: should you mostly look at houses above your price range?

Posted by PreshusSmurf

Ooooh ... does this mean I get to tell my hubby that I'm right & he's wrong?

I love when that happens, its fun!

Message edited 3/20/2008 4:19:28 PM.

Re: Spinoff to Low Balling: should you mostly look at houses above your price range?

Posted by PreshusSmurf

Ooooh ... does this mean I get to tell my hubby that I'm right & he's wrong?

I love when that happens, its fun!

Re: Spinoff to Low Balling: should you mostly look at houses above your price range?

Yes, we have a price range... and sometimes look at homes $20k above it if they are in the area we want. The market is really good so if we really love something higher than our range we can make an offer within our range.

Re: Spinoff to Low Balling: should you mostly look at houses above your price range?

Yes..look at houses at all price ranges, therefore, you know what is out there for what price. When we looked, we looked at houses at about 100,00 over our price rance.

Re: Spinoff to Low Balling: should you mostly look at houses above your price range?

I refuse to look at anything above my max number b/c no matter what, I don't want to spend even that much

I want a house with good bones...and house with potential. a house that MAYBE doesn't have the bathroom I want today...but I can do it with money SAVED, rather than getting it outright with money borrowed.

my dh disagrees. he wants the whole shebang right away (but I still won't look above our max and I pick out all the listings bwhhahahahahahahaha)

we will see who ends up victorious.

ETA: we will look at anything for the sake of looking, but for strong consideration...NO. I don't want to go over a certain number...even if it's by 10 cents.

Message edited 3/20/2008 4:38:26 PM.

Re: Spinoff to Low Balling: should you mostly look at houses above your price range?

Re: Spinoff to Low Balling: should you mostly look at houses above your price range?

Posted by Ophelia

I refuse to look at anything above my max number b/c no matter what, I don't want to spend even that much

I want a house with good bones...and house with potential. a house that MAYBE doesn't have the bathroom I want today...but I can do it with money SAVED, rather than getting it outright with money borrowed.

QUOTE]

This is what we did and we found a great house for a very reasonable price.

The other homes that are right out of our range are usually a similar style but, more updated. For the price difference - it was better to buy the less expensive home and do updates ourselves the way we wanted it as opposed to buying a house that was updated the way someone else wanted it.

Re: Spinoff to Low Balling: should you mostly look at houses above your price range?

Re: Spinoff to Low Balling: should you mostly look at houses above your price range?

We ended up offering on a house that was originally about $20,000 over our price range. And that price point was literally our breaking point.

After our own low-balling we got the house way below actual value.

Retrospectively, I am so glad we reached a bit and got this house than stayed looking 50K lower. I think we got a good investment (worst house, best block) and have more space than I thought we would.

Message edited 3/20/2008 6:28:11 PM.

Re: Spinoff to Low Balling: should you mostly look at houses above your price range?

Our house was 30K over our max price that we wanted to spend and we ended up spending much less than the max. We mainly looked at houses that were at our max up to 50K higher.