Turning down 1st home offer...opinions please (for sale, real estate market)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Hi,
My husband and I have had our home on the market for a little over a week. The first couple to look at it, after it was on the market for 3 days, placed a contract, but offered $12,500 off the asking price. We priced our home on the lower side to make a little, but to move it faster. We are hoping to sell the home by February 2009...after counter, counter offering they are sticking firm to an offer that is $1500 less than we paid and $3000 less then we ever wanted to take. We have decided to decline their final offer and hope that we will get another offer closer to what we're hoping for...we are being realistic in this market, but would like to sell w/o taking a huge hit. Do you think it's realistic that we'll get more offers if we already had one after the first showing? The home is listed at $1475000 just to give you an idea of what range we are in. Thanks!!
We had a seller reject our offer on a house 1.5 years ago. We offered 220k, they wanted 235k. They did not even want to negotiate (and we would have went higher if they had). We went to another part of the neighborhood and purchased basically the same house for $222k the next month.
Ultimately, that initial house stayed on the market for another 11 months--unoccupied. According to the Wake County records, the sellers ultimately sold the house for 225K over 11 months after our initial offer. With a 1.5k mortage payments that the sellers had to make for almost 11 months, I am sure even our initial offer looked appealing after 11 months.
Point: 3k is chump changes if you end up having to pay a mortgage on an unoccupied house for a few months.
We put our house in Michigan on the market in 2007. House was priced at $219,900. We paid $210,000 in 1999.
First offer came in at $194,00. We countered at the halfway point and were hoping to negotiate with the buyers. The buyers stood firm with their $194,000. We rejected.
The next offer came 2 months later. We had dropped price of house to $209,900. The second offer was for $180,000. Through conversations between our agent and the buyers' agent, their top number was $185,000.
In retrospect, the $194,000 was not so bad. If we had it to do over again, I don't know that we would have handled it any differently.
We currently have a renter in our house.
FWIW, if they are $3k under your bottom number, in this market, I think that's a pretty good deal.
Tough decision. I hope your agent is helping you! If the difference is $3,000, how many months of house payments will it take to lose $3,000? Two? Three?
On the other hand...an offer after only a few days USED to mean that a buyer would expect to pay full price!
There's an old saying in real estate, "The first offer is the best offer."
It is not always true. But it is true often enough that the thought should be remembered.
1st offer is usually the best and you usually get the best buyers/potential within the first 10 days...
We listed our home here on long island 2 days before halloween we priced it right and knew what we would bottom line.....the day after halloween (4 days into it and the 3rd showing and we had an offer....by day 7 we had our 2nd offer.......we verbally accepted the 1st b4 the 2nd came in after we had countered and met in the middle, when the 2nd offer came in it came in at $5k more than the first but they need a mtge where the first buyer is all cash..
Sometimes a few $'s in the long run isn't worth the hassle......not sure how much the market is dropping there but we're losing 1% every month here.......
you need to decide if that $3k is worth what you may be losing every month that the house sits on the market and every mortgage payment you have to pay while you're waiting....
Good luck.......by the way.......we're coming down next week to buy our home and hoping to close on both and finally be down there for good in January......YEH>>>
We got an offer on our house in July for $190K. Our house was priced at $204K. We paid $184 and had spent $6k putting a fence up. We countered and they stood firm on that offer. We declined as we would've lost money with the realtor commission etc. We have not had another offer since But I am still happy that we turned down that offer. We don't need to move. We would really like to move....but we still need to be realistic about it. But I do think about that offer from time to time!
You are trying to recoup your money on the fence, and that is not going to happen for you sorry to say. It is a new day right now and you should think about that and monitor what is happening around you. That is what it is all about.
There's an old saying in real estate, "The first offer is the best offer."
It is not always true. But it is true often enough that the thought should be remembered.
Mike, while in this market I would agree some what with that statement. But as a result of believing that statement we accepted an offer that was 25K under what we had a back up offer for. Fortunately, we still made money, sold the house for more than we listed, and did not worry about the house appraising (would have worried w/ the higher offer). But I would love if I had 25K more in equity right now. I'll build my screened in porch and redo my master bath room even it I didn't think I'd get it back a resale.
Maybe there is a reason for everything. I think the people who bought the house was a better fit for the neighborhood. So I look at it as community service.
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I was going to say the same thing
But I am still happy that we turned down that offer. We don't need to move. We would really like to move....but we still need to be realistic about it. But I do think about that offer from time to time!
Fortunately, we still made money, sold the house for more than we listed, and did not worry about the house appraising (would have worried w/ the higher offer). But I would love if I had 25K more in equity right now. I'll build my screened in porch and redo my master bath room even it I didn't think I'd get it back a resale. 
