Still don't know guys.
Home was listed at $159,900. It is out in the sticks in an area that has not had much real estate activity for a while. We've been scouring that area for a month and a half now. There are "for sale" signs everywhere, but we can see that nothing is moving. I'd hate to have to try to sell a home out that way, even though we personally love the area. There are precious few comps for comparison to indicate what similar homes have sold for, and the realtor felt the initial asking price was kinda high. The "Zestimates" from the Zillow website is all we have to go on, and that's show's a severe drop in that area since the bubble burst. Zestimate on this home is $131,500.
Our realtor contacted the listing agent and got a story about the sellers that they are "highly motivated" to sell, that they are trying to get under contract on another home, but are still $8000 apart on the price. We figured that they came in with an real lowball initial offer if they were at an impasse like that after a series of offers and counters. Our realtor suggested that we come in at $140,000 to see if that drew a counter. We decided to put in a slightly higher - 10% below asking price - with the hopes of letting them know they will need to come down but are willing to listen to a reasonable counter. The purchase offer went in at $143,500.
After two long agonizing days, they got back to us with their counter - $156,900. Less than 2% off the already high asking price. Our agent said he was surprised their counter was so high. The selling agent told him she was surprised they came down that much.
So now we're weighing what our options are. If we had the time, I'd let them stew for a few months. Wait for the price to drop (and it will, they are all dropping around here), then put in another offer for the same $143K. As it is, we may be stuck paying way more than it is worth or be forced to rent a home at a much higher monthly payment, in a place I won't ever be able to settle in with my shop and other stuff.
A huge confounding factor is how this place will appraise for a USDA-backed loan. Our hope is to just get them to come down by 6%... the estimated closing costs. Our mortgage broker told us that it is a huge red flag for the underwriters to see closing costs being rolled into the mortgage that exceeds the asking price of the home. And I don't have $10K to spare to cover those costs, not with attorney's fees, inspections, appraisal, moving costs, and all that we want to do to this place after we get it
Any real estate gurus have solid advice about which way we should think of going?
Here's a link to the listing. Note the "door to nowhere" out from the kitchen in the back. Silly modular homes, they get on site with them and it's "oops... hadn't thought about that". Nothing that a few grand worth of deck won't fix, but I'm surprised they could have kids in that place for 7 years without ever addressing that error. The rest of the place is just what the doctor ordered for us empty nesters.
http://www.albanyhomes411.com/homes/2388-County-Highway-107/17510725/?index=7
BTW there is a nice Harmon P-61 pellet stove in the living room (goes with the home) and 3 tons of pellets in the basement (not sure if they'll include them or sell them). Full insulation in the floor joists, and the driest, I mean the bone-driest basement I think I've ever seen. After 20 years of dealing with massive groundwater floods, this is a dream come true. There will be a wood stove in the recreation room I plan for the basement (hopefully a Woodstock, it truly sucks that I can't get the awesome pricing they are offering right now), and there is a nice Brunswick pool table with an Italian slate bed in usable condition about 10 minutes away being advertised on CL for $300. I've wanted my own pool table all my life, just never had the room for one. So, this place is just supposed to happen, eh? Just don't know the steps to get there. I even tried invoking the spirit of Jean-Luc Picard by telling our realtor to "Make it so", but apparently, he is not a Trekkie.
