Which seller is most likely to accept my offer?

[palmcoasting]

Not in ours... You do run a risk doing both at the same time, although there are escape clauses that should cover it. It's not something I would recommend. If you feel you have to do both, then I would start verbally and see what's going where and then write the one up that you are most comfortable with and make it a solid deal.

[floridasandy]

go with the one that you like the most and when presenting the offer let them know that you are also interested in the 2nd house. they will surely relay that information to the sellers.

[DavePautsch]

Slightly different perspective here:
Are you buying a house? or a Home? Are you purchasing it purely as an investment...or someplace to live and perhaps raise your family?

Ok, I KNOW that in a buyer's market we are all going to negotiate hard and there are people out there looking for the deal of a lifetime. I respect that and heartily endorse it...but I never forget that in reality we are dealing with people on both sides of the equation and if we lose sight of that element (as REALTORS) we're sunk.

So...Are you willing to negotiate in good faith with EITHER of these home owners...or are you just going to play them off against each other to take advantage of one of them...and if you don't get your way, walk away?

Karma gets her way...be careful.

That said (whew, glad I got that off my chest)!
With so many unknowns in the equation, it's tough to give you a valid recommendation, however it would seem to me that on the surface, the whichever party stands to lose the most by NOT taking the offer will take it, and the other may too. It's also possible that NEITHER will.

My answer though is to look at other components of your offer first:

Are you a solid buyer? you can improve the likelihood that they will accept your offer if you, in return offer them something ELSE that they might value (a quick closing date, assurances that you will buy the home "as is" after any inspection results are received, no sale contingency on your part, increased earnest money and/or a large downpayment). Are you just pre-qualified? or truly pre-APPROVED for the purchase?

Maximize the strength of your negotiating position; know your walk-away point.

goodl luck...let us know how it turns out.

Dave

[indecisive]

I just want to make an offer to one party, I don't want to hurt anyone, but in the end I am looking out for myself (who else will?), I think I am a pretty good buyer, fully pre approved with no contingencies and can close in a week if needed. I'm being relocated so my company has taken care off all my closing costs and has also purchased my current home.

but now i have found a rental nearby that , after all taxes, would save me 10k per year over buying. so I am now humming and hawing on rent vs buy, especially with the nature of san diego's real estate market

[Gretchen B]

Originally Posted by indecisive

Heres a scenario. I am looking at two houses, both very similar in features and in the same community, both now asking 550k after dropping the price a couple of times. Both have been on the market for ~ 6 months. The first SFR was bought in 2005 for 650k (2nd owner), the second SFR was bought in 2002 for 389k (original owner). They were both built in 2002.

Question: If I were to offer say 500k on both these houses, which seller would be the most likely to accept?

A couple of side questions: Is the sq ftg the same (all on a single level)? What about location/desirability of the lot? Views? Cul-de-sac? Or truly equal homes?

Amount owed on each home is probably more important than what the owners paid for the homes. (I think it was Palmcoasting that noted that.)

What's the comps show? Anything else in the subidivision recently sold? Depending on the comps, could be that $500k is actually too high for an initial offer if nothing is selling in that subdivision. On the other hand, if $500k is a lowball offer, then be prepared for a counter offer.

[Eric Young]

I usually google the names of sellers to find out as much as I can about them. Usually I learn nothing, but occasionally I come across some pretty helpful information. Late last year I was able to find out that a seller had not only purchased a home in another state, but that the husband had already been transferred there and was working there. It definitely made a difference in our approach. When they countered our original offer, we countered back a couple of thousand less than our starting price and told them we were firm. My buyer wasn't sure if I was a genius or insane, but when the sellers accepted, my guy was pretty happy. That was a very fun transaction, thanks to 20 minutes on Google.

Of course, Iggy was right earlier when he said that you'll probably never know for sure what a seller's motivation truly is. After a transaction is completed, I usually ask (it's part of the post-mortem I do - partly out of curiousity but also to learn how to improve). I'm regularly surprised at what I didn't know... ill relatives, new careers, jail time. There's no way I could have guessed (or googled) this stuff.

My guess is that you're probably best off making the offer on whichever one you prefer more. The two homes are clearly competing so either seller is going to know that you'll go to the other house if he rejects you or makes a bonehead counter (which is probably suicide in the current SD market).

It's nice to see you're doing this the right. Good luck, whatever you decide.