I'm going to buy a house, I could use some help!

[AlohaStyle]

There are a lot of good replies here so I won't say what others have said, but it's impossible for us to tell you how much to offer on a house. Every situation is different. You need to look at prior sales history for every house you are interested in so you know in advance where the sellers are coming from. If the sellers just put the house on the market for $200k and you know they paid $150k for it 7 years ago, you know they have wiggle room in the negotiation. If the house has been on the market for 8 months and they have lowered the price down to $200k from $275k and they paid $260k for it 4 years ago, there probably isn't much wiggle room left. They are already selling near the basement.

So there's no right or wrong answer here, it just depends.

Good luck brother, it's an exciting time! My wife and I unfortunately bought our first house shortly before the market collapsed. So we have a lot to figure out in the next couple of years...

[BigCat]

Perhaps I'm just being cranky, but it seems to me that it would be appropriate to acknowledge those who gave you thoughtful responses to your first post with a "thanks" or a "piss off" before moving on to further questions. Flat out ignoring them seems rude to me. Just my

[s15driftking]

Originally Posted by BigCat

Perhaps I'm just being cranky, but it seems to me that it would be appropriate to acknowledge those who gave you thoughtful responses to your first post with a "thanks" or a "piss off" before moving on to further questions. Flat out ignoring them seems rude to me. Just my

I absolutely appreciate all the advice/stories/situations/scenarios that were previously given in the thread. I made note to thank eveyrone in advance in the initial post.

I wil ladmit that my lack of constant thank-you's must be a mere oversight of this entire situation. Its starting to become stressfull as we just had our first ful lday of househunting today... And the last 2 weeks have bee ncrazy with nixxing and approving houses our realtor was sending us.

I apologize if anyone that posted here feels angry/offended that I did not directly thank them for their words of wisdom/advice. I have a much greater grasp on what to look for in terms of quality and "deal-ability" and I know that I'm going to find a great home. thanks to everyone... and yes bigcat, you must be cranky!!