5 Secrets to Buying a home for Less than Appraised Price in 2023

I am going to reveal the secret in the first fucking paragraph of this post. No need to read the rest, fuck it. The real secret to buying a home in the USA for less than appraised value in 2023 is simple. Buy the house nobody else wants. That’s it. If you are willing to live with the things other people hate about a house, you will be far more likely to pay the proper amount for a home.

Here are five secrets on how you can buy a house for less than its appraised value in 2023:

1. Look for houses that have been on the market for a long time: Houses that have been on the market for an extended period of time may be more likely to sell for less than their listed price. Once a home is on the market for more than 30 days then prospective homebuyers think something is fucked up about it. Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes the home was in contract and the dumb ass buyer decided to buy a new car, fucking up their debt to income ratio making them unable to move forward with the loan. Note, that has never happened to me, but similar shit has.
2. Be aggressive in your offer strategy: Motherfuckers don’t like low ballers, but they may we willing to negotiate if they listed their home thinking it was going to go in contract in days and it hasn’t. Nothing makes a seller more willing to negotiate a lower purchase price than time on the market. Note: I consider a lowball offer one that is less than the amount the seller paid for the property. I mean shit, they are already losing money with realtor fees and such, Jesus.
3. Consider purchasing a Grandma House: Grandma houses are the fucking best. A grandma house is a home that has been lived in by the same family usually for 20+ years. The may have an old ass furnace and AC unit, but they kept up with the regular service schedule and that shit works. They may not have a new roof but it doesn’t leak! It will MOST definitely have some funky carpet or green or pink toilets or even 50 year old linoleum in the kitchen. Either way, a grandma house is structurally solid, but outdated.
4. Look for houses in less desirable areas: Often my buyer’s purchase on the outskirts of a popular neighborhood. They are just a few blocks further from all the amenities that more expensive neighborhood offers, but the homes are significantly cheaper. Yes, shit is always cheaper for a reason. My opinion is simple. There are no bad neighborhoods. There are only neighborhoods that have more slum lords than others.
5. Take advantage of holidays and events. In my area, people searching around the holidays always end up with a little more negotiation room. Our busy time in Central Ohio is the spring. Seeing houses in my area when it’s shitty and cold outside is a great strategy. Less people out looking the better!

Everyone wants to begin with equity. The equity typically isn’t realized until you make some payments on the mortgage. My wife and I bought our house in May of 2020. It appraised for $30,000 more than we paid for it. After paying on it for a year we refinanced and were able to drop our mortgage insurance. Talk to your lender about how long you have to wait to refinance.