The Real Percentage Chart For A Reasonable Offer On A House

The Percentage Chart: What A Reasonable Offer Actually Looks Like

Start with condition, not gut feeling. A turnkey home, move-in ready, nothing to fix, gets offers at asking price down to 3% below it. A home that needs paint, flooring, or fixtures but nothing structural gets offers 5% to 10% below asking. A home that needs a roof, HVAC, plumbing, or foundation work gets offers 15% to 25% below asking, because the buyer has to fund those repairs themselves after closing. Those three bands are the actual chart. Everything else is commentary on top of it.

Market temperature moves the number inside each band. In a balanced market, a reasonable offer sits 3% to 5% below asking. In a hot market, with under 4 months of housing inventory on the shelf, reasonable can mean at asking or slightly above it. In a slow market, with more than 6 months of inventory sitting unsold, reasonable can mean 5% to 10% below asking, because sellers have fewer buyers competing for their house.

There's a second layer sellers skip: earnest money and closing costs. Earnest money typically runs 1% to 3% of the purchase price, money the buyer puts down to show they're serious, and closing costs typically run 2% to 5% of the price. A seller comparing two offers has to net all of it out, not just compare the top-line number. A 97% offer with low closing costs and a fast, certain close can beat a 100% offer that drags for 85 days and gets renegotiated twice.

Why The Percentage On Paper Isn't The Number You Actually Get

A reasonable offer on paper and a reasonable check at closing are two different things. Once a buyer is under contract, the home still has to clear an appraisal and an inspection. If the appraisal comes in under the offer price, the buyer can walk or renegotiate down to the appraised value. If the inspection turns up a problem, the buyer can ask for a credit, a repair, or a lower price, and most contracts give them the right to do exactly that.

The clock makes this worse, not better. NAR's own data puts the national median at 41 days on the market in March 2026, up from 36 days the same month a year earlier. After that, ICE Mortgage Technology's data puts the average time to close a purchase mortgage at 44 days. Stack them and a full-price listing runs close to 85 days from the day it lists to the day it closes. Every one of those 85 days is a day the buyer can ask for more, the appraisal can come in low, or the financing can fall through and send the seller back to the beginning.

Then there's the fee that comes out regardless of how the negotiation goes. A February 2026 survey of 533 agents by Clever Real Estate put the average total commission at 5.70% of the sale price, split roughly 2.88% to the listing agent and 2.82% to the buyer's agent. That comes off the top before the seller sees a number, on top of whatever the appraisal or inspection already took off.

Another Way To Compare A Reasonable Number: Your Two Offers

You can compare the Fast Cash Offer and the Premium Cash Offer with Cash Flow Deals alongside the 85-day listing example. With the Fast Cash Offer, we buy your house as-is and close. With the Premium Cash Offer, a pre-approved FHA or conventional buyer we already have, ready to go, pays more and buys directly from you. You choose which offer fits your needs.

We cover repair costs, and we figure out a way, so nothing comes out of your pocket. With Premium, only what the buyer's lender requires gets fixed, with costs settled from the sale proceeds out of our share. With Fast Cash, you sell as-is without making repairs. The number is agreed before any work starts, and it changes only if you agree. The one exception: if something structural surfaces that was not visible or disclosed before we signed — foundation issues, hidden moisture, old wiring, cast-iron drain failure — we re-cost it and bring the number back to you. You decide. You can walk away. We disclose what we know at offer time so this almost never happens. You can review that process before signing instead of wondering how a repair bill might affect you three weeks into a contract.

Here's how you move through the process:

1. Cash Flow Deals reviews your property so you can compare the Fast Cash Offer and the Premium Cash Offer based on your home as it sits today.

2. If you choose Premium, you sign with us and give us permission to bring in a buyer in our place. Your home may be listed through Silver Door Realty, a licensed Florida brokerage, with a licensed agent and scheduled showings. Your buyer signs a new contract directly with you; title transfers directly from you to that buyer, and their lender funds the purchase. Cash Flow Deals is paid as a separate line item on the closing statement.

3. You help pick your closing date. The existing close-in-45-days-or-less timeline depends on your chosen offer and the requirements of your sale; Premium includes the buyer's appraisal, inspection, and financing.

If your buyer's loan falls through, that is our problem, not yours, and you can still take the Fast Cash Offer at its own number alongside your Premium Cash Offer choice. Cash Flow Deals is a Florida real estate investor; Silver Door Realty handles the Florida brokerage work on the Premium path.

You can compare both offers with the estimated 85 days for a listing by looking at what you receive, who buys your house, and what must happen before closing.