Our job as your real estate advisor is to help you determine what the fair market value is for any given property.

But once we've done that, the question remains - how much should you offer?

Our advice is simply this: You have to weigh the following - at what price will you be willing to lose your bid?

For example, if we help you determine that a property is worth $800,000, you might still want to offer less. Let's say you offer $750,000. The idea is that if someone outbid you at $750,001 (i.e., $1 more than your bid), you would not regret losing the property.

However, if you would have purchased it for $751,001, and would regret losing the property for that $1 difference, then you should raise your bid. Keep raising it until you're at a price where you would not mind losing it for $1 more. That's your "sweet spot" price.

So, when considering your bid, decide what the price is where you would not mind losing the bid by $1 more.