Chris Shaw's Advice

The first step would be to contact a local realtor.  In most cases the cost will be 0 if you are stating to the agent you would like to list your home for sale.  If you just need a market analysis for your own  purposes you can go to eappraisals.com, cyberhomes.com and of course zillow.com to get a high, low and medium value.  If you need a more concrete answer you may want to contact a local appraiser and if you do not need it for lending purposes, most will charge a reduced fee to give you an accurate market analysis.  Hope this gives you some direction to take.  

What city, have you Googled the property address to see if it was listed on the MLS. In most cases if the property has been listed you can go to Realtor.com or other sites like that to find the listing agent. If it is not listed it may be a little more difficult.  In the past I have asked the neighbors about the current owners or if they have any information about it being for sale.  Most neighbors can lead you in the right direction.  If all else fails you can go to the county court house /sherrifs department and see if it is foreclosure process.    

Do you not qualify do to credit or income? This would be the initial question I would ask.That 150k in equity will it give you a 80% or less loan to value?I specialize in difficult mortgages and have over 14 years experience.Please feel free to contact me I would like to understand more of your dilemma, before I can accurately answer why you can't get approved.   

I have read most of the post and some have given some great advise, the best advise I can give would be to do your homework.  Based on the question you did not give a price /comparative to the market.  Are you buying a distressed property, foreclosure property.  All these will have to be known before anyone can accurately see if you will make or lose money in 3 years.  I live and work in a pretty unstable market in the Michigan area, but I understand when I buy that in 3-4 years the market should rebound.  The Dallas area has not been hit as hard so if you buy significantly below market you could possibly break even.A little sweat equity can go a long way in any market.      

There are three great sites you can go to get your values.zillow.com $410,000cyberhomes.com 248,460eappraisals.com 371,000 just estimates Each will have a different value, but they will show homes in comparable size and value that have sold.  This is just to get an approximate value of the home.  If you are looking for concrete numbers, you can contact a local appraiser or realtor to give you more accurate numbers.  Took liberty to give you example of what you will have in prices. Now you will have to do your homework to figure out what you are comfortable with for a price.   

That question seems easy to answer, but the question I would ask, how long has it been on the market, any other competition/bidders. Have there been any offers turned downed, not that the agent can tell you what the offer was, but it shows action on the property.  Does the property need minor, or major rehab.  If it needs major rehab, it will usually eliminate a lot of competition, so I would low ball the offer. If it only needs little to 0 repairs I would not low ball, but look at the area, call some agents to see what comparable type homes are selling for and craft my offer from there. Important question, how bad do you want this home, a price can't be put on that, if you will be heart broken if you loose it, submit an offer that is market friendly.        

No your daughter will not be able to obtain the tax creditBelow are the condition that eliminate a person from receiving the new credit     2.You buy your home from a close relative. This includes your spouse, parent, grandparent, child or grandchild. It might be easier for you to sell the home and you gift the down payment to your daughter.  Each year you can gift up to $10,000 year each to your daughter.  Just food for thought.