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View Poll Results: What is considered a "low ball" offer?
10-20% Below Asking Price 12 15.58%
20-30% Below Asking Price 48 62.34%
30-40% Below Asking Price 9 11.69%
40-50% Below Asking Price 7 9.09%
50-60% Below Asking Price 1 1.30%
Over 60% Below Asking Price 0 0%
Voters: 77. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 11-09-2014, 03:23 AM
 
Location: Purgatory
6,367 posts, read 6,231,908 times
Reputation: 9889

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Electrician4you View Post

The problem is people don't want to negotiate anymore.For whatever reason it's their price and nothing else. Or they need x amount to break even, they believe their house is worth x and NOBODY will steal it from them.
Eventually a year down the road maybe two the house prices are gonna be high enough to warrant their price ( maybe) and by GOD they WILL get their price ( and they can now tell every one of their friends they didn't get "screwed")
People get way too emotional over houses. Hey if the house is worth that much to you why are you selling it. Nobody wants to pay for YOUR emotional attachement or financial hiccup. There are only another five thousand houses just like yours for sale.

See, this is what i sense too. I am a newbie buyer and have not even come close to making any offers. But 20 -25 yrs ago, i moved alot w fam as a kid. My fam always BOUGHT a place (never rented) and usually for "much lower" that their asking prices.
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Old 11-09-2014, 04:37 AM
Status: "Made the Retirement Run in under 12 parsecs!!!" (set 11 days ago)
 
Location: Cary, NC
43,124 posts, read 76,705,928 times
Reputation: 45445
Quote:
Originally Posted by Electrician4you View Post
I really don't think of a offer as lowball. Because they're all offers. There are offers I say yes or no or let's talk. If a seller feels their house is worth a and I feel its worth g then the seller has a few choices. He can say nothing, no, yes or come back with a number and we go back and forth till we find a number were both happy with. If we can't then we can't.
If someone offers something and I feel it's not good enough a very simple no thank you will suffice. I'm not gonna get mad over it. I'll wait for another buyer but I'm not gonna lose it.

The problem is people don't want to negotiate anymore.For whatever reason it's their price and nothing else. Or they need x amount to break even, they believe their house is worth x and NOBODY will steal it from them. Eventually a year down the road maybe two the house prices are gonna be high enough to warrant their price ( maybe) and by GOD they WILL get their price ( and they can now tell every one of their friends they didn't get "screwed")
People get way too emotional over houses. Hey if the house is worth that much to you why are you selling it. Nobody wants to pay for YOUR emotional attachement or financial hiccup. There are only another five thousand houses just like yours for sale.

Much truth here.
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Old 11-09-2014, 06:17 AM
 
Location: NC
9,346 posts, read 13,974,278 times
Reputation: 20842
To be Devil's Advocate here, I am thinking that one reason folks like to stick near the asking price is that their agent may already have convinced them to list at a price the owners think is low. For example, an agent might suggest that for a quick sale they should sell at X dollars when there might be an argument for asking for 10-15% more. The agent rarely says, lets price it at a value that has some negotiating room. Thus the owner is sort of set up to believe that the price they are asking is the true value. Of course a good agent will explain that there may be a need/desire to negotiate at list price.
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Old 11-09-2014, 09:39 AM
 
Location: Riverside Ca
22,146 posts, read 33,312,427 times
Reputation: 35433
Quote:
Originally Posted by luv4horses View Post
To be Devil's Advocate here, I am thinking that one reason folks like to stick near the asking price is that their agent may already have convinced them to list at a price the owners think is low. For example, an agent might suggest that for a quick sale they should sell at X dollars when there might be an argument for asking for 10-15% more. The agent rarely says, lets price it at a value that has some negotiating room. Thus the owner is sort of set up to believe that the price they are asking is the true value. Of course a good agent will explain that there may be a need/desire to negotiate at list price.

The problem is that everyone uses comps because that's the way it's done. Well really no two houses are alike. Even two same floor plans have different issues not to mention different design features which may add or take away desirability. And the only price that matters is what a buyer is willing to pay. If someone makes a offer you are not obligated to take it. But there is no reason to get emotional or feel you were insulted. To THAT buyer your house is only worth that much. If you feel the house is worth more then simply say no thank you and hold out for a buyer who is willing to pay more.

Some homeowners unfortunately ( like a lot of people) believe that THEIR item is worth more than the one down the street. They could have two identical houses and one homeowner will say his house MUST be worth more. Hell that's the reason why people use agents. Because people will kill each other otherwise. Can you imagine two parties trying to negotiate a price. Both emotionally charged AND and huge amount of money in the middle. Maybe one day we'll have a reality TV show called Million dollar FSBO, or FSBO addict. THAT would be a great show.
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Old 11-09-2014, 10:31 AM
 
8,544 posts, read 12,308,754 times
Reputation: 16448
What is "lowball" is in the eye of the beholder; and "pricing" is pretty much based upon one's expectations. A property I was interested in was listed at $450,000. That was more than I was willing to pay but I figured that if I submitted an offer for $250,000--what I was willing to pay--then it would likely be rejected. I sat tight. After a few months, the list price was continually reduced, more aggressively as time went on. The list price was finally dropped to $225,000, so I made a full price offer and a sale was made. Had I offered $225,000 initially, I'm sure the Seller would have considered it to be a lowball offer, not to be taken seriously. However, after a few months, reality set in and his expectations were lowered.

And...I still would have paid $250K for it, but I lucked out and got if for $25K less.
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Old 11-09-2014, 10:56 AM
 
Location: Lakewood Ranch, FL
5,663 posts, read 10,693,525 times
Reputation: 6945
^^^FSBO or really bad listing agent?
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Old 11-09-2014, 11:06 AM
 
Location: Denver CO
24,204 posts, read 19,079,310 times
Reputation: 38266
Quote:
Originally Posted by luv4horses View Post
To be Devil's Advocate here, I am thinking that one reason folks like to stick near the asking price is that their agent may already have convinced them to list at a price the owners think is low. For example, an agent might suggest that for a quick sale they should sell at X dollars when there might be an argument for asking for 10-15% more. The agent rarely says, lets price it at a value that has some negotiating room. Thus the owner is sort of set up to believe that the price they are asking is the true value. Of course a good agent will explain that there may be a need/desire to negotiate at list price.
I knew my comps better than my realtor because I had been obsessively tracking them for many months. I ended up being more aggressive in pricing than my realtor's recommendation. About 4% above what she suggested. I didn't get my asking price but I did get more than my realtor's recommended listing price. And of course, while it depends on the market, buyers generally see a listing price as a starting point, and expect to pay at least a little below that.
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Old 11-09-2014, 12:23 PM
 
15,633 posts, read 26,157,024 times
Reputation: 30917
Quote:
Originally Posted by Electrician4you View Post
I really don't think of a offer as lowball. Because they're all offers. There are offers I say yes or no or let's talk. If a seller feels their house is worth a and I feel its worth g then the seller has a few choices. He can say nothing, no, yes or come back with a number and we go back and forth till we find a number were both happy with. If we can't then we can't.
If someone offers something and I feel it's not good enough a very simple no thank you will suffice. I'm not gonna get mad over it. I'll wait for another buyer but I'm not gonna lose it.

The problem is people don't want to negotiate anymore.For whatever reason it's their price and nothing else. Or they need x amount to break even, they believe their house is worth x and NOBODY will steal it from them. Eventually a year down the road maybe two the house prices are gonna be high enough to warrant their price ( maybe) and by GOD they WILL get their price ( and they can now tell every one of their friends they didn't get "screwed")
People get way too emotional over houses. Hey if the house is worth that much to you why are you selling it. Nobody wants to pay for YOUR emotional attachement or financial hiccup. There are only another five thousand houses just like yours for sale.
This entirely! My family is in an inheritance situation with land, and if and when ours sells, all the parcels will be sold. People aren't getting the fact that the prices they are asking are crazy, considering that the plan of the district is the homes will be razed (ours already is) to create a medical office building and parking with a small frontage road. Several of them are hiking their prices because they put so much into their homes.... but the developers who are the potential buyers don't care about the houses at all. The houses will go bye-bye. Frankly, if the house means so much -- houses can be moved!

And so -- year 8.... the land still sits. Not having the house on it, means our tax bill is way low, as is insurance. The estate can stay open for years.... because there's enough money in the estate to pay said low taxes and insurance for 100 years. Sooner or later the people who can't sell their homes will die and the heirs will find themselves in the same position as us... and then the prices will drop to get whatever they can out of it.
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Old 11-09-2014, 03:21 PM
 
26,660 posts, read 13,635,427 times
Reputation: 19117
We put offered 5% less then asking on a home once and the owner refused to even speak to us. He thought it was a lowball offer. lol! So I do agree with those who say it's subjective.
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Old 11-09-2014, 03:33 PM
 
Location: Tucson for awhile longer
8,869 posts, read 16,262,759 times
Reputation: 29229
Quote:
Originally Posted by bbronston View Post
... It's really not the offer to listing price ratio, it's the offer to market value that determines whether an offer is reasonable or low ball, in my view.
I agree with that. I also think that in many cases an offer far below market value can be such an insult to the seller that they won't even negotiate.
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