OP here. Thanks for all the good advice. You guys/gals are better than my buyer agent who gave me no advice and urge me to listen to the listing agent. Thanks!!

I would make an offer below listing with all the contingencies and a 24 expiration date telling the seller you have another property you really love and are ready to make an offer on if he reject your offer

Think of it this way: Would you feel massively disappointed if you didn't get this house? Would you feel that this was the "house that got away" if you didn't buy it? Or would this be the house for you only at a certain price point? Bid at that price point or slightly lower. I like escalation clauses for the "just in case" scenario, but truly. There is almost always another house out there.

And don't waive the inspection. I did that with house #1, and would NEVER do it again. Pre-inspection is another way to get out of this problem.

This happens all the time there is usually a buyer that has the property on his back burner until another person is interested.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:you ignore what you were told and offer what you want, with a 24-hour expiration date on it.

What is the point of a 24 hour expiration date. The seller knows that we are interested and can come back to us after the 24 hour window to ask whether we are still interested or not. Unless it is a credible threat such as we will put down another offer for another house after the 24 hour period.

Because if you don't put a deadline, then you are tied up (and can't bid on another house) until they give you an answer, which could be whenever they want.

Put an expiration on it.

That actually happened to me - house on the market for over two months, and all of a sudden, out of the blue, there was another buyer. I think it was someone who liked the house but didn't want to pay the list price. they got more interested when they realized I was interested, and I ended up offering list,more than I thought the house was worth. won the house, but the inspection turned up some troublesome things that I thought would be very expensive, so I walked based on the inspection contingency. the other bidder got the house for $10K less.

Offer what you think it's worth, OP. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:you ignore what you were told and offer what you want, with a 24-hour expiration date on it.

What is the point of a 24 hour expiration date. The seller knows that we are interested and can come back to us after the 24 hour window to ask whether we are still interested or not. Unless it is a credible threat such as we will put down another offer for another house after the 24 hour period.

I think you learn that one in realtor class, always say someone else is really really interested, move fast and bid high!
Put the timeframe in, 24 or 48 hours, so they dont shop it around and prevent you from bidding on other properties.
Frankly you should say "24 hrs and then you make a move on another property you like."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:you ignore what you were told and offer what you want, with a 24-hour expiration date on it.

What is the point of a 24 hour expiration date. The seller knows that we are interested and can come back to us after the 24 hour window to ask whether we are still interested or not. Unless it is a credible threat such as we will put down another offer for another house after the 24 hour period.

the point is putting pressure of the seller to take your offer into consideration and say yes or not (in that case risking that you go away and the seller loses the sale) in a short period of time. if you do not put an expiration, the seller is going to try to drag things on to get more offers to compete with yours. if the seller has to come back to you after it has rejected your offer, the seller will have to lower the price obviously, and that's why a seller may try to drag things on instead of responding within 24 hrs

a house on the market for 2 months, unless there is a dramatic lowering of the price is not going to get a bidding war. just offer what you think is right, put a 24 hours deadline and see what happens.

I think the listing agent is lying, OP. put in the offer you planned to (before hearing that crap from the agent).

We recently bought in Fairfax. The listing agent advised our agent that we should put in escalation, as there was another competing offer coming in. We decided against it, feeling that the full price offer was fair for the property, but no more. The house had been listed under a week, so different situation then yours- I think the fact that the house you're interested in has been on the market for 2 months says a lot about the pricing. That is, overpriced. Did they just do a price reduction? If so, that's the about the only way I could believe the luisting agent that another offer is coming in at same time as yours.

Take emotions out of it and bid what you think this house is worth for you. Hopefully there are comparables in your area to give you a starting point.

We lost a couple of houses during bidding wars this way, and then found our dream house and won it. We bid what we thought was reasonable.

Anonymous wrote:you ignore what you were told and offer what you want, with a 24-hour expiration date on it.

What is the point of a 24 hour expiration date. The seller knows that we are interested and can come back to us after the 24 hour window to ask whether we are still interested or not. Unless it is a credible threat such as we will put down another offer for another house after the 24 hour period.

Liars just like car sales people.

We were once told that there was another buyer interested in the house we purchased -- that someone had been back to see it a couple of times. Turned out those visitors were us. LOL

you ignore what you were told and offer what you want, with a 24-hour expiration date on it.

We are interested in a house that has been sitting on the market for more than 2 months. The listing agent told our agent that there is one other buyer that is also interested and will submit an offer. So our offer should be aggressive -- bid high and waive contingencies. How do we know whether the listing agent is being truful or is the agent trying to get us to pay more and have an easier transaction? What is the odds that there is really another buyer out there that is suddenly interested in this house right now?