answer:Offering 157K is fine. The owners are not required to consider the offer seriously. My guess is that they think you are lowballing them. Maybe they have come down a long way since they first put the house on the market. Do you really want the house? Offer 160 and see what happens. When you’re only a few thousand apart, it’s really a game more than being about the money. It isn’t going to change your mortgage much.