Holding Off On Second Offer

I spoke with the agent for this property again. I told her I noticed that the property was still available and I would like to make another offer on it. She remembered me and said I would have to do "much better" on my offer. I was able to get a bit more information. The listing said the property fell out of escrow and the seller wanted a quick close and had reduced the price $10,000. Based on that, I made the assumption that the owner needed to sell the property in order to complete the purchase of another property. That may not be the case. I found out from the agent that the property is currently empty and the seller is living elsewhere. So the motivation from holding up another purchase is gone, but in its place, there is motivation of holding on to a vacant property. The problem is the former motivation is much stronger than the latter. If a pending purchase is being held up, there is a large, daily motivation to sell, but if the property is vacant, the motivation is more in the monthly timeframe - due to mortgage and HOA payments.

So I'm a bit torn as to what to do. I was planning on submitting another offer about $5,000 higher than my first offer. Given this new information, I'm fairly certain that would be rejected as well. Instead, I think I may wait and see if the property is still available next week, between Christmas and New Years. If it is, the seller should have the prospect of another needless mortgage payment firmly in mind and may be more receptive. Also, during the holiday lull (which is also going on right now), there may be fewer offers to choose from. I suspect the seller may be waiting until after the holidays to see what offers she might get. Hopefully, if Christmas comes and goes and the place is still unsold, her resolve might weaken a bit.


On a different note, I was checking my referrer logs this morning and noticed that over 25% of the last 100 visitors here came via a link at Blueprint For Financial Prosperity. I'd like to thank Jim for the nice blurb and link. Welcome to those that have come from there!