Offer Price

Depends on price point in my opinion and comparables.

There is no rule. Some people price way too high and have to keep cutng before they even get buyers to come to open houses. Some start low in the hopes of getting lots of attention and starting a bidding war. If the market is hot then many places tend to sell above ask, if it's a bit stagnant like it is now and especially if it's really weak you can get in below the ask. Actual selling price of comps is the only things thats any use. Sometimes sellers are morons and price themselves out of the market so those rediculous offering prices make prices look skewed to the upside - ignore anything on the market for 300 days. New devs are usually pretty savy about pricing - those asking prices are usually pretty firm so if you are buying an existing property at least you can use them as an upperbound. Whether they should be 5, 10, 20 or 30% more expensive than what you are looking for is a judgement call.

Be careful about throwing in a lowball offer if it is a brand new listing and there seems to be interest. If there are other bids closer to ask and you really like the place, all that will bo is put you at the end of the line. Believe it or not, some apartments are properly priced. We lost an apt last year even though we came in over ask. The seller underpriced the apt (it was a 3BR for a 2BR price) and received a lot of bids (I thought there was no way it would go over more than $25K over ask and I was wrong - we then ended up overpaying for a place in fear of losing it). I agree with TheStreets in that you need to look at recent comp sales. That may show it is overpriced and give you a reasonably basis to underbid. Bottomline, there is no standard on whether to bid low, ask or high. Although I would certainly agree there are probably not a lot of places going for over ask these days. Good luck.