But what's a ridiculous offer when house has been on the market for a year and has been reduced by 70,000? Asking is 289,900. I'm think of asking 250,000.
Your offer would not be ridiculous at all. The original $350k price is irrelevant. You’re only 13% below the current asking price.
I’ve owned 7 homes. One thing I learned early on is that unless you are paying your agent as a buyer’s agent (which nobody does), then “your” agent ultimately works for the seller as the seller is the one that will pay them.
Still, they are interested in helping you, and you start to feel close to them as they drive you from home to home.
Then, if you find a house, and want to put in an offer, they will try to shape your offer so that it may be accepted, and so they aren’t embarrassed. The later one caught us once. “Our” agent was shocked by an offer I was preparing to make, and she said she didn’t want to take that to the sellers agent. My wife was siding with the agent, so it was two against one. We worked through it, but I thought the agent was unethical in not doing what I asked.