Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We just put our house on the market in late January after researching how to correctly price to sell (wish we had done so sooner of course). We listed at 1% over a comp that closed in Jan 2011 (same model of house so a true comp). List is 25% below 2005 purchase price so we are realistic in that we are going to take a considerable equity hit.
Two prospective buyers come a knocking who have "accepted offers" on non leder approved short sales in our area. One of the houses is again the same model as the comp and their contracted price is 20% below the non-bank approved short sale list and 25% below the comp. Each party haven't heard a peep from the banks in 6 months and are thinking of backing out and going with a conventional seller.
Each buyer verbally offers around 25% below our ask?? First it's a verbal, second you are 25% below a comp that closed 3 weeks ago. Internally we are a bit offended but keep things friendly as we consider it may just be a psychological tactic and it can't hurt to try and get a realistic negotation going. We have our realtor request a written offer before we will begin negotations and that they need to justify asking price, we in turn justified our listing in the email with multiple comps.
Each of these buyers justification was their unapproved contracted short sale offer, no comps. They truly believe that their unapproved offer has a bearing on the market value... In reality their contract is nothing more than an unnegotiated low-ball bid that the bank probably will never respond to and if they do are certainly countering.
I don't know if people are uneducated on the short sale process in that the seller is just using them as a pawn in their delay foreclosure so "I can live rent free" game or are using it as a negotiation weapon. My honest read were these poeple were just clueless and no amount of friendly conversation could get them to even be somewhat realstic... thus communciation ends there.
Two days later we got a legit offer for 97% of our asking price, are now under contract. Buyer is pre-approved and is bringing 20%. Looks good so far, on to the inspection we go.
I would urge other sellers don't fall for the contracted short sale buyer feeling you out verbally. They are most likely delusional as they think their contracted price means something. Realistic buyers are out there if you price realisticly and back it up.
buyer may be "pre-approved" but it will still depend on the appraisal. Surely there must be some REO action in the area. I do agree that an accepted short sale offer from a person, who does not have the right to sell or owns the property means ZERO.
A "verbal offer" is not an offer. If I received only one or two of these I'd tell my agent to shut up and send me offers only when they are formal.
Offers are a negotiating tactic. Anything other than a formal (written) offer is merely a probe. They are probing you to find out if you'll accept a minimum, maybe even accept a very bad deal for you.
My agent is good. He has told me about several potential buyers who have expressed interest. An expression of interest is good but it's not an offer, and I'm not interested in offers unless they are willing to put it in writing and offer earnest money as a deposit.
I'm glad it sounds like you sold your house. My comments are mainly for other sellers. Three percent under asking sounds great! I'd accept that myself unless there were multiple offers.
Reminds me of some calls I got when FSBOing my house in LV in 2003. All kinds of wacko verbal "offers" My stock answer as soon as I could get a word in edgewise was "send me an offer in writing with proof of funds or a pre-qualification letter, and I will look at it". These are bozos who think you're a. stupid, and b. desperate.
Congrats on your good offer, I hope it all goes smoothly for you.
Kona Kat, I heard your name mentioned just today in the forum, and just like the Devil you mention his name and there he is! ... (Candyman, Candyman, Candyman...) Aaaarrggghhhh!!!
On the other hand, there plenty of people who are (a.) stupid and/or (b.) desperate. I'm sorry for them to have to be the low hanging fruit. Fruit has no choice about where it grows on the tree. People do.
I'm glad you got a good offer for your home. It sounds like you priced it competitively, and in my opinion (we've been searching and researching housing in our area for months now), the houses that are priced competitively sell fairly quickly even in the current economy.
As for "low-ball" offers, I would say this to anyone who is selling...
Never be offended by those. People are just asking. What if you offered low on a house and the buyer accepted it (or something close to it)?
What would you rather pay for a house? The higher price, or the lower one?
This is true for all items you pay for with your money.
Can't hurt to ask. I mean, it's silly to ask for something quite so low as what you were offered, but I'd have to laugh at that kind of offer. Maybe they're really eager for a nice house but just flat out cannot afford to get into one without a sweet deal.
On edit: I really wouldn't let my realtor pass those along to me, unless it was merely because she found them amusing.
I don't see that there's any reason to be nasty to a prospective buyer who makes a low-ball offer. Who knows? Maybe they're just probing you out and hoping you'll accept the low-ball, and intending on coming back with a better offer if you turn them down. Might as well just politely decline the offer.
I could be wrong but from what my RE agent explained to me he has to tell me about all offers unless they're absolutely ridiculous, like offering me $50 or something. I don't mind low-ball offers, already got one. I'm taking it as a positive sign that better offers will be on the way soon.
I don't see that there's any reason to be nasty to a prospective buyer who makes a low-ball offer. Who knows? Maybe they're just probing you out and hoping you'll accept the low-ball, and intending on coming back with a better offer if you turn them down. Might as well just politely decline the offer.
I could be wrong but from what my RE agent explained to me he has to tell me about all offers unless they're absolutely ridiculous, like offering me $50 or something. I don't mind low-ball offers, already got one. I'm taking it as a positive sign that better offers will be on the way soon.
Could you not tell your RE that you don't want to entertain ANY offer that's below a certain price point, so not to even bother with those?
Then your RE could go back to the buyer's agent (assuming there is one) and say "I'm sorry, but I know my client won't consider an offer that low." or something to that effect?
On edit: I agree with not totally ignoring low-ball offers. Why not respond with what you want? I mean, even if you want your listing price, you could respond with that.
Or maybe subtract a small amount from the listing price, like 1% and respond with that.
Anyone who wants to deal will start negotiating. Anyone who really did expect to get your house for free won't bother.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
