When the market is a strong seller's market making your offer a good offer is very important. There just aren't a lot of homes for sale right now. The other thing you need to keep in mind is that your first offer needs to be strong. Don't expect the seller to counter your offer. When a seller is getting 5-10 offers they can not counter all offers. Sellers can also only counter one offer at a time so they will most likely only counter the highest or second highest. 

Buyers also need to understand they have almost no control or leverage right now. Thinking you will be able to low ball or have a ton of contingencies is not realistic.