The Market and the Buyer
Today's market in our area is changing. If you track these sorts of things, you'd notice there are more price drops now than I've seen in the past couple of years. Our economy is really strong here and our housing market is generally strong, but it's just not moving as quickly at it used to. This usually leads to the price drops we are seeing and it indicates that the Buyer has a little more elbow room than we've experienced in recent history.
What does this mean for the buyer really? It means that you shouldn't shy away from asking for repairs, making offers that may not be full price, or asking the seller to leave that refrigerator they were planning on taking with them. For now at least, the time of wondering how much over full price you need to offer to get the house seems to be behind us.
This doesn't mean there won't be underpriced homes on the market that generate multiple offers, it just means that not every house will have that much competition.
So, ask for what you really want and you just might get it, or usually some kind of concession from the seller at least.