Well, this art all depends on the situation you are in. Most people do care about saving a few dollars, but if you've found the home of your deems, do you really want to risk losing it over a few thousand dollars? That is just one school of thought that I happen to agree with. In more rural areas, such as the Upper Peninsula, you'd probably have more flexibility with your offer than you would if a hot new listing came up in the Traverse City Michigan real estate market on the lake somewhere. When dealing with St. Ignace, Newberry, Cedarville or Drummond Island Michigan real estate, you realistically will not have the volume of buyers interested in a given piece of property. 

Of course all sellers know they will be coming down some on their listed piece of Michigan real estate. How much to offer is always the question? Most professional Realtors list properties near or at fair market value, so sometimes there may not be a lot of room, but it never hurts to find out. Just don't make the mistake and offend the seller. If you're looking to make the buy because it's a great deal, then make the offer you wish, even if it is low. However, if it is a property you really want, do not offend the seller with too low of an offer. It's probably a good idea to get an idea who the seller is as well. When I sell properties on a land contract, I never take an offer. The price is what it is. Other times when people have offered cash, but low balled the offer, I've countered higher than my original asking price. It would be prudent to find out why the seller owns the property and why they are selling it.

To give you an idea of what a "low ball" offer might be, let's say a home is at a $100,000 asking price. Would a low ball offer be $60,000? The correct answer is "it depends". Maybe the home is overpriced and only worth $60,000. There are all kinds of variables to consider when making an offer. Rely on your Realtor when trying to figure out what a fair offer may be. If you offer too low, then you might not get a counter offer to what the seller's bottom dollar would have been. If you make an offer that is too low, then you may be kept out of the loop because another buyer offered a bit higher.

If it's the property you want, don't mess around. I've offered full price on rural pieces of northern Michigan real estate knowing full well they were overpriced to the market. The main thing I remembered is that I knew what the break-up value of the property would be if I do a few improvements, so it just all depends.