Hello BP community,

I’m looking to purchance my first side by side duplex, the property is a bank owned forclosure in a B+ neighborhood, surround by a few duplexes mostly single families, it’s been on the market 2 day and has 5+ offers, it will need a projected $20,000 in work to be in prestige condition, low taxes in this town great rental potential. $134,900 is the listing price, my offer ways listing price with $8,000 to cover closing cost, I’m wondering if I should go higher or stay where I am. What has been your experience with “Highest and best offers” any advice will be greatly appreciate! Thanks in advance

Offer what you think you can To make it work and not more. Sometimes this is a gimmick used by agents to get you to bid against yourself

@Kiante Macon You can have your realtor pull REO comps sold in the last 6 months. He should be able to tell you a price that it will most likely sell for based on those comps. But I'm not advising you to make an offer based on the comps. Some investors are paying way too much for properties in the MLS. Run your own numbers and make your highest and best offer based on your own criteria.

Also, just because there are multiple offers, it doesn't mean everyone is offering asking price. I've been into multiple offer situations asking 10-15K below asking and still won it. Of course, if this property just hit the market then the bank will just wait a couple months and slightly reduce the price until they sell it. but it it's a property sitting on the market for a while, then they might entertain something at 10-20 % below asking. 

Daniel thank you for your reply, solid advice, i just reached out to my agent who is running comps now, I’ve been looking for a property for quite a while now and this is the first good one that has popped up in this excellent town/neighborhood, I’m also curious if over paying to secure it for the long run would be a wise idea

@Caleb Heimsoth thanks for the reply Caleb, I hear what you are saying there, I’m not sure that is the case with this one though due to the property only being on the market 2 days, and also while I was looking at the property yesterday there was another group there, as well as neighbors stating there was a convoy of cars there earlier, high bid for the long run, or smart offer with possibility of it being snagged in this hot market?

I would highly recommend sticking to your numbers. You can almost bet there will be unexpected costs and if you over pay you will be less equipped to deal with them. I bought a house last year and offered asking first day on the market. My realtor begged me to increase my offer because of multiple other offers. We held firm and got accepted. Then within a few weeks of moving in we found major problems that took more than 9 months and $100k to fix. We are just now getting back on track. If we would have gotten into a bidding war that would have been thousands of more dollars that we would have had to overcome and still would have had the same rehab pricetag. Stick to your numbers and you will avoid a lot of trouble!

if there are lots of similar deals I will offer on the very low end

If there are few to none I will offer on the high end

If I think I can flip and make a lot o offer on the high end. 

If there is not a to  of room for profit I offer on the low end 

Highest and best only means you put forward the top dollar you decided you would pay from the get go. If you did not determine that number before you made an offer you are not prepared to be a serious investor.

Numbers not sellers determine the price.