From my recent experience in Bay Area homebuying, that 20-30% depends on the neighborhood, city, property, and timing. In one case we saw it was under 10%; in a

From my recent experience in Bay Area homebuying, that 20-30% depends on the neighborhood, city, property, and timing. In one case we saw it was under 10%; in another it was over 35%! (It seems to be a fairly open secret in this town that the realtor involved in that latter case _really_ likes to lowball their asking price, though.) My advice (for the little it is worth, as I am not a professional in these things) is not to assume you know the buffer to apply if you're trying to make an offer. We used our own previous attempts and our studies of comparable sales in the area to inform our offers.