I got the ball rolling on this a few days ago by calling my realtor and letting him know I would like to put an offer in this week.
He got back to me today having runs some comps. I spoke to him again 45 minutes later and he had emailed back and forth with the selling agent. He asked if the property is still available, and the selling agent replied "yes but I have 2 showings this weekend."
I am tempted to think this is BS. This agent is the 3rd or 4th since the property went on the market, and he has had it for 5 years or so. Last summer when I viewed it, it was 3 months after the heavily advertized zoning change. At the time I was the first to have viewed it since this agent took over...he told us that. And it took his office 3 days to retrieve the plat from the court house since they had never showed it before and didn't have it in their file.
But, when he showed it to me last summer he dropped that he had somebody else coming out to look at it a few days later. Seems like a hell of a coincidence that all these showings turn up around the times that I am interested.
At any rate, in the case that he is not bluffing, I told my agent that we will hold off until next week to put my offer in. I do not want him using my low ball offer to entice somebody else in to the table.
I know the guy that currently has the hunting lease to the place. He mows it and keeps the gate key in exchange for hunting privileges. He does not know that I am interested. I will call him Sunday night on some pretense and find out if he opened the gate for anybody lately.
They are hoping to sell it for development. I just want it for recreation. I will waive any inspection contingencies and pay cash at closing. Hopefully those factors will encourage them to meet me at my price.
The only thing I am still unsure of is whether I want to make the offer non-negotiable and come in closer to my max price, or come in lower with room to haggle depending on how they react. I've got the weekend to think about it.
