Strategies for Overpriced Offers

How is one supposed to find their way under such conditions? Who should I have listened to?

Orient yourself according to your possibilities and wishes and listen to your gut.
You can no longer orient yourself on BORIS. The market is crazy, and in a decent micro-location extreme deviations are possible.

If you cannot afford something, don't buy it.
If you can afford something and want it and the search is getting you down, then buy it – even if it seems too expensive to you.

The money will come back eventually. Lifetime won't. At least that's how I think.

I just found it a bit cheeky if I had "called" you right in the opening post :).

My old friend Holger would say an invitation is not a subpoena. And although I am quite reliably only rarely away here for several days at a time, there are also sections where you even have to call me if you want to meet me there: namely in the areas of financing and kitchen planning.

De facto this does happen. And publicly visible, by the listing price being reduced.

But who is that supposed to be good for? – the serious house seeker for himself and his family wants to be able to move into the property as soon as possible, and hunters with the specialty of penny stocks are not interested in houses (at least not single-family houses).

That may be true. Nevertheless, the insight may mature with him that his price was too high. With me, among other things, the impression solidifies that especially private sellers (but also agents) have a very hard time taking discounts for renovation needs into account at market-appropriate levels – and especially at the start of marketing.

Agents, well, only very few of them really shine with expertise anyway. Among private sellers, especially those who built forty years ago at a clearly higher-earning level, there is a lack of any idea of the meaning of the term "aesthetic depreciation." Combinations like mahogany./.moss green are simply more than a little "out of fashion" today.

Well, some of the suggestions are uncomfortable. Nevertheless, one cannot deny that he encourages reflection and reconsideration.

Oh no, I don’t really see myself as a philosophy coach. What do you mean by "uncomfortable" suggestions?

And what category do the agents fall into (I’ve experienced it twice myself) who already say on the first phone call?: "Yes, of course, the house in its condition is not worth 500,000. But if I had put 350,000 in the listing, then I would have hundreds of inquiries on the first day."

In my opinion, into the category "(not Johnny) Depp." A good agent – who are unfortunately extremely in the minority, but still one should only want to deal with these – does not want to play games but wants to close deals.

But who is that supposed to be good for? - the serious house hunter who wants to move into the property as soon as possible for themselves and their family,

There may be such people. But as long as the pressure isn't that strong yet (e.g. current apartment still acceptable, but not very nice), you can take your time searching, get to know the market, skip bad offers, etc. I've read so many posts from you that I'm not 100% sure anymore, but haven't you also called on one or the other forum member to be patient?

What do you mean by "uncomfortable" suggestions?

Barthel's method of searching for real estate is simply more uncomfortable than clicking through ads. You have to approach people (takes some overcoming), sometimes even knock on doors (takes even more overcoming), travel to the search location (takes time), wait for answers, endure setbacks from annoyed neighbors of vacant properties. All of this is by no means comfortable.

You can no longer orient yourself by BORIS for a long time now. The market is crazy and in a decent micro location extreme deviations are possible.

If you want to use standard land values as price calculation for undeveloped plots, you probably really have bad chances. I agree with you on that. Someone once explained in another thread that his municipality basically derives standard land values only from transactions of undeveloped plots. And since there are very few of those, the value is often only increased by the inflation factor over more than a decade. Of course, nothing sensible can come out of that. I understand. What concerns the real estate standard values (which existed in the location of the example I referred to), the expert committee has a larger fund available. In the specific case I even requested the purchase price collection (real cases with real prices paid!). And these matched surprisingly well with the results of the standard value calculator. The standard values are indeed derived from real prices paid - and if there were corresponding cases, I do not see why they should be so off.

and if there were corresponding cases, then I don't see why they should be so off.

They are not necessarily off. Your question was what you can do. And the answer is that you set your own decision criteria. There are people who buy even above an established market price if they want something, and others who have the patience to wait to meet exactly such a price. Seller-oriented agents play the game quite casually. You just have to deal with that because that is what you encounter, and it makes sense to maintain your own clarity. Everything else only makes you unhappy, and arguing with others harms your quality of life. It changes nothing, brings nothing. It’s just as silly as getting annoyed about a traffic jam. That won’t make you arrive any faster either.

If I really want something, for example, I pay without batting an eye, within my self-imposed limits, sometimes “too much,” or just more than those who also want it. If the price is beyond my self-imposed limits, I simply don’t buy. A house that is only 60% above an appraisal value must really trigger a lot of emotion for me to buy it. I would probably leave it.

I have read so many posts from you that I’m not 100% sure anymore, but didn’t you also once call on one or the other forum member to be patient?

I myself no longer remember roughly my first four thousand posts here. That I once called someone to be patient at least fits my nature. This may also have happened in property searches; I specifically remember it only regarding at least one questioner (I believe, a technical question) who was desperate after eight hours that the "quick-response machine Internet" had not helped him yet :)
However, regarding this ...

That may be. But as long as the shoe does not yet pinch so strongly (e.g. current apartment is still acceptable, but not very nice), one can take one’s time with the search, get to know the market, let bad offers pass by, etc.

... one must not dismiss the possibility that the shoe not yet pinching often lies in the past. The delivery time of a new earthling – not the only reason, but still a top evergreen placement reason in the home ownership wish charts – is nine months from a positive pregnancy test. If one calculates an average of eight to twelve months until someone here uses the phrase "we are desperately looking," then the desired moving date is not much longer term than "NOW," even if the shoe did not yet pinch at the beginning of the search. From the perspective of the property search advisors here, "patience instead of too much money for a subsuboptimal object" is still "right" – but a seller should nonetheless expect that a turnover is not expected from him only in two years.

Someone once explained in another thread that their municipality basically derives land reference values only from transactions of undeveloped plots.

Municipalities need a realistic assessment of property values mainly for their land allocation committee. And banks maintain their own real estate departments very importantly for the reason of being able to assess the market based on concrete cases HERE AND NOW instead of from history books and for a statistical pooling region up to the seven mountains at the seven dwarfs. For this they need these concrete cases to cross their desk and to be available without delay to their market knowledge. Ideally, such a real estate department bank employee is only "as much" worth as an average broker, so as not to distort the parameter "speed of outflow" ;-)