Hi, i live in michigan and want to make an offer on a commercil property that has been for sale for 2.5 years now. The bank wants the property off the books, The listing agents says just make an offer. They are asking 149000 for it, the building needs work, I want to make a 50,000 offer, Thats all i fell it is worth. It is bank owened. Is this realistic

In your mind, is the value really affected by "who" the Owner is ?

Or "how long" it has been on the market ?

I know that Buyers like to think so . . . . and that this changes as soon as they own it!

But who knows; maybe you'll get lucky ?

The worst thing that can happen is that they'll say NO!

The bank almost always counters the investors low offer as they know the first offer isn't the WALK AWAY offer.

So look for a counter from them to see how much up in price you will go.

After 1 or 2 counters you will see how motivated they are.Is it a local or regional bank or a national bank??

An asset valued at 149,000 is small potatoes to most banks and they can dump much easier than a larger loan.You won't know where they are at until you submit the offer.

Instead of spending a bunch of time on a contract submit an informal LOI (letter of intent).Once you settle on a price and basic terms then start go into and official contract.This is very common in commercial real estate so you don't waste a bunch of time.

Great advice, Thank you, I was trying to feel the realtor out, All he keeped saying is " just make any offer, take into consideration the work you will have to do and make us an offer, the bank just wants this one gone". It is a local bank.

Make an offer see where it goes.

The broker can't tell you nor do they know what the banks bottom line is. For a local bank it is usually the Chief Credit Officer or Executive Vice President that makes the call.

It all depends on what their losses are for the year and how much of a hit they can take without affecting their Texas Ratio to much.

I could explain all of this to you but you just need to put the offer in and wait for an answer.

I am putting in the offer today. I will post the results.

The bank countered at 81,000. Not sure i want to pay that much? Thanks for all the help

149,000 to 81,000 shows they are motivated.Try to go up a few k and see how much more they will come down to your side.

Example you are at 50k and they were at 149k and countered at 81k.Come back at say 52k or 53k and see how much they move.For every 5k to 8k down you want to go up 1k to 2k.

No legal advice

You need to decide on a specific amount that you are wiling to pay for the building. Is it more important that you gain rights to this specific property, or is price the primary motivation? You can counteroffer as low as you like, but you risk aggravating the seller (and therefore the deal), so decide exactly what this property is worth to you (monetarily or otherwise) heading into the deal.