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I am thinking that perhaps I don't understand the "Counter Offer" game. I think it wasn't something people did so much until the market became so slow but the market is picking up and looking better every day. At this point, we are wondering if we can afford to sell. Many properties have been pulled from the market because sale prices dropped. We had an offer that was almost 25% below our fairly (seriously we know the market here) priced home and on top of that they wanted all the newer nice appliances, ALL window coverings and we had offered SOME, the expensive 8 x 10 area rugs from each room and a closing date that was firm with no wiggle room. In the past, we did counter on a couple other places but this time, we didn't. I felt that we were too far apart. I told the realtor that I was surprised they did not ask for our dog! She said they asked for so much so that they could be in a position to negotiate. So, they didn't want to give up more cash so they took the appliances, etc. and slide them over to their side and were going to offer these back to us to bring down the price? I don't think she was particularly happy with us. I was not particularly happy with her either. So, I would only counter something that seemed reasonable to start out with and this wasn't it. The house will most likely come off the market next month. I wished her luck in finding them a house like this for the little money they had to offer - small town and I know the market. I see the market improving so anyone that can wait is probably in a better position now than before and I watch the market in a few other areas, cities and states.
Make a counter offer you think is fair. Continue to counter until you don't think it could possibly work.
Buyers are all "looking for a deal". They don't understand that fair market value right now can be a real deal, with prices lower than they've been in many years. Our market appears to have stablized, multiple offers on well priced homes in good conditions. Many buyers don't get that.
FYI, I have found that buyers that come in super low, then work their way up in the counter offer process often end up using the inspection period as a way to bring the price back down. Beware and be prepared to say no if they are asking for unreasonable repairs/credits.
When we sold our house last the offer we got was waaay off to start, so my first counter I took a bit of a cut, then they barely moved on their counter, so I did the same. After 18 counter offers we actually had a deal...I was surprised. My wife was very emotional and told me she wanted to quit negtiations about halfway through the process, she felt slighted. At that point I took over the negotiations and got what i felt was a fair deal, that now looking back 2 years was great for us. I always counter, but i am not a pushover.
The buyers are doing their completely predictable job. Your job is to get to the best deal you can both agree upon. It takes give and take until you get to that point. Now, rejecting an offer outright can be a legitimate 'negotiation' tool but it runs the risk of shutting everything down before you really get started. It's your call. It could be that your buyer isn't really qualified to buy your property and they are reaching. If that's the case, you are probably wasting your time but you can't discover that without a counter offer. As others have said, don't take it personally...it's a process.
I bought my first house in 1964 and there were offers/counter offers back then. You can always counter with a $1K price drop, no inclusions, to see if they are really willing to negotiate; or more $$ if you can.
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She said they asked for so much so that they could be in a position to negotiate. So, they didn't want to give up more cash so they took the appliances, etc. and slide them over to their side and were going to offer these back to us to bring down the price? I don't think she was particularly happy with us. I was not particularly happy with her either. So, I would only counter something that seemed reasonable to start out with and this wasn't it. The house will most likely come off the market next month. I wished her luck in finding them a house like this for the little money they had to offer - small town and I know the market. I see the market improving so anyone that can wait is probably in a better position now than before and I watch the market in a few other areas, cities and states.
