Year round living in Maine. (sale, real estate, apartment)

[WhoFanMe]

Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012

UGH!!! I hope you at least got to keep their earnest money as compensation for them just changing their minds. I'd be pretty pissed off.

I wish you luck with one of the back-up offers!

Unfortunately this is happening more and more often as the market frenzy continues. Every state is different, but in Maine, the earnest money is refunded to the buyer as long as they are in their contingency period that was negotiated in the purchase and sale agreement. The buyer gets to tie up the house for several days or more and then the house goes "back on market," leading to future buyer questions as to why.

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by zalewskimm

The way life should be? (I couldn't resist!)

That might be because of the barking shepherds...

[YorktownGal]

Originally Posted by WhoFanMe

Unfortunately this is happening more and more often as the market frenzy continues. Every state is different, but in Maine, the earnest money is refunded to the buyer as long as they are in their contingency period that was negotiated in the purchase and sale agreement. The buyer gets to tie up the house for several days or more and then the house goes "back on market," leading to future buyer questions as to why.

Westchester, NY is in such a frenzy that realtors aren't collecting earnest money.

On Saturday morning, we had another request for a showing. We quickly left our house at 10 am. The prospective buyers didn't show up until 11 am and stayed for a whole hour.

We left for our Maine trip two hours later than planned. However, all is forgiven! They made an offer and scheduled the inspection for Wednesday.

We stayed at a nice B&B in Freeport and drove up Route 1 - Boothbay Harbor, Wiscasset, Thomaston, Newcastle, Camden, Belfast where we turn back around. I would like to see Brunswick, Bath and Searsport, and Eastport before making any decisions.

I love Maine!

[Kiwiluver]

Good. I think my home in NC is going to sell, at least we had an offer we excepted. I live in Maine full time nowadays and have not one regret other than the dishonesty surrounding the building trades.

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

Westchester, NY is in such a frenzy that realtors aren't collecting earnest money.

On Saturday morning, we had another request for a showing. We quickly left our house at 10 am. The prospective buyers didn't show up until 11 am and stayed for a whole hour.

We left for our Maine trip two hours later than planned. However, all is forgiven! They made an offer and scheduled the inspection for Wednesday.

We stayed at a nice B&B in Freeport and drove up Route 1 - Boothbay Harbor, Wiscasset, Thomaston, Newcastle, Camden, Belfast where we turn back around. I would like to see Brunswick, Bath and Searsport, and Eastport before making any decisions.

I love Maine!

just a side note, Eastport is nothing like any of the other towns on your list. Not even close.

[YorktownGal]

We got another offer. It's lower than the previous offer by $10,000.

After the inspection, they want to lower the price by another $10,000. Their reasoning is the central air is twelve years old and could go at any minute. My husband runs it at 69 degrees all summer and I'm watching TV under a blanket.

My broker wants to get them down to $3,500 from the original $10,000. Really, I don't want to give up anything more.

So my question for C-D - - - is this how real estate sales go in Maine? Should I offer people ten or twenty thousand dollars less their asking price? Is there less or more negotiation? Do people use inspections to lower prices?

It's crazy because the previous inspection went so well. The previous inspector said it was in the top 5% of houses he has seen this year.

I don't mind fixing something that is broken, but paying for central air which is still working seems crazy. They seem to only want to lower the negotiated price.

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

We got another offer. It's lower than the previous offer by $10,000.

After the inspection, they want to lower the price by another $10,000. Their reasoning is the central air is twelve years old and could go at any minute. My husband runs it at 69 degrees all summer and I'm watching TV under a blanket.

My broker wants to get them down to $3,500 from the original $10,000. Really, I don't want to give up anything more.

So my question for C-D - - - is this how real estate sales go in Maine? Should I offer people ten or twenty thousand dollars less their asking price? Is there less or more negotiation? Do people use inspections to lower prices?

It's crazy because the previous inspection went so well. The previous inspector said it was in the top 5% of houses he has seen this year.

I don't mind fixing something that is broken, but paying for central air which is still working seems crazy. They seem to only want to lower the negotiated price.

#1 never offer full price

#2 Offer whatever you want. It's a business transaction.

[phoebesmom]

I had to do that on two out of three of my last house sales, lower the price by 10,000 just because they asked--I think they were not qualifying for mortgage or they did not know how expensive insurance was. By the point they asked, we were a couple of weeks from closing, so I said okay, just lower it, I need the sale to go through.

It was weird, but maybe it's a new normal of negotiating.

I would just take the lower price if you want to work with this buyer. If you are confident you'll get another buyer, then move on.

We are finding the Maine market crazy and losing out on bids because we bid less than full price. But you have to offer what you want, and not start playing games like some of these buyers seem to be doing.

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

We got another offer. It's lower than the previous offer by $10,000.

After the inspection, they want to lower the price by another $10,000. Their reasoning is the central air is twelve years old and could go at any minute. My husband runs it at 69 degrees all summer and I'm watching TV under a blanket.

My broker wants to get them down to $3,500 from the original $10,000. Really, I don't want to give up anything more.

So my question for C-D - - - is this how real estate sales go in Maine? Should I offer people ten or twenty thousand dollars less their asking price? Is there less or more negotiation? Do people use inspections to lower prices?

It's crazy because the previous inspection went so well. The previous inspector said it was in the top 5% of houses he has seen this year.

I don't mind fixing something that is broken, but paying for central air which is still working seems crazy. They seem to only want to lower the negotiated price.

I am not making offers now so I don't have my finger on the pulse of conditions in Maine. In a slow real estate market, you can look to make your own bargains by underbidding. In a hot market, assuming the house is desirable and priced fairly, you better offer full price, or even better, if you ever expect to get a house, because the sellers will have multiple offers to choose from. Part of knowing what to bid of course is knowing the market and the property well enough to value it yourself fairly well. For some properties, the asking price is a bargain, and for others, the owners are totally unrealistic - you need to be your own value-meter, and in basic terms your offer should be relative to value, not relative to asking price. Beyond that, consider how hot the market is for adjustments.

I have paid asking price or $1K-$2K over, for various reasons... and I have also paid $20K under... just different properties, different markets, different situations... never regretted a purchase... For example, the first house I bought was a big Italianate in a very slow market in depressed western NY, and I paid a little over the asking price... which may sound odd, but, the house had already been sold for many weeks... and it turned out that the buyers were having trouble obtaining a loan...so I essentially had to convince the owner to drop their interest in the purchase that had already been agreed on (there is always an escape clause for sellers if the buyer can't get financing). I absolutely loved the house and thought it was a great price, so slow market or not, I offered $1K-$2K over. It got the seller's attention, she invoked the escape clause... the buyers had 2-3 weeks to come up with the loan, and they couldn't do it, and I got the house :-). Later, despite a huge Kodak layoff and even worse local economic conditions, I did okay at sale time. But I knew what I was buying when I made the offer - my own appraisal of value and the situation drove my offer, not just a rigid rule about how much to pay.

[YorktownGal]

Thanks for everyone's responses. It's important to know.

My prospective buyer offer was $35,000 under my list price. We asked them to raise the bid by $15,000 which they did. However, they used the inspection to bring the price down to their original offer. They were only putting 5% down which means a jumbo mortgage, so who knows.

@phoebesmom

But you have to offer what you want, and not start playing games like some of these buyers seem to be doing.

A friend said before HG-TV, real estate was more straightforward. In her opinion, buyers want perfection now. Also everyone thinks they are a real estate wheeler-dealer now. I think there is something to this.