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I made an offer on a townhouse on Friday - all cash. My realtor relayed the message today that they said they have a higher cash offer and if that was not my best offer to basically let them know what my absolutel best was and they would counter if it was higher than the other offer. I want to believe that people are honest but would a realtor generally say they have another cash offer if they didn't. I don't want to be bidding against myself.
Location: IN>Germany>ND>OH>TX>CA>Currently NoVa and a Vacation Lake House in PA
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You can't assume anyone is playing fair. Feel free to give them your "best" offer, but if it were me I would tell your realtor that was your best offer and move to the next house. If they come back to you, take money off your original offer for wasting your time.
This is the kind of crap that just burns me up, and it does happen all too often depending upon the market where you live. You made an offer, and they are expected to either make a counter offer or accept your offer. Not come back at you with "What's your best offer?". I'd tell them "None of your damn business!".
Urban myth. No agent or seller in their right mind would risk running off a legitimate buyer with a made-up "other offer" when they can just as easily counter. The most common reply that I get when I inform a buyer of multiple offers is "Do you think they are just playing games with us?" There seems to be a widely held belief that listing agents routinely use phantom offers to milk more money out of a buyer. In my experience this is just a myth. If a seller wants more money, they have just as good a chance of getting it by negotiating in the normal manner. Lies and phantom offers are not necessary and a straightforward counter-offer doesn't run the chance of chasing away a perfectly good but skittish buyer. You have three choices:
keep your offer exactly the same in hopes of being the winning offer
increase your price and/or better your terms in hopes of being the winning offer
withdraw your offer because you "don't play games' or believe the agent/s are lying to you
Thanks. I think the only reason I questioned it is this is a company that is buying and flipping foreclosures - don't know why that would make a difference but just gave me pause.
I made an offer on a townhouse on Friday - all cash. My realtor relayed the message today that they said they have a higher cash offer and if that was not my best offer to basically let them know what my absolutel best was and they would counter if it was higher than the other offer. I want to believe that people are honest but would a realtor generally say they have another cash offer if they didn't. I don't want to be bidding against myself.
Back when my wife and I were looking at houses the first time I heard that counter to my offer I was thinking wtf that is what I'm willing to pay for this house. So I told them so. I was told its not good enough. Ah well I moved on. Most of those houses I bid on took 5-6 months on average to finally sell. In some cases I heard back months later that my offer was accepted. Yay no thanks. By that time I mentally moved on. Some houses took up to a year to sell.
As for the agent bs'ing you it wouldn't be smart to do that. Maybe if the guy is a scuzzbucket. But a real agent wouldn't jeopardize a via pike offer over a few thousand bucks. And as a seller if I found out he did that there would be words exchanged. Two words.
I wouldn't offer a penny more than what you feel comfortable with.
And if its a flip go over it with a fine tooth comb.
You can't assume anyone is playing fair. Feel free to give them your "best" offer, but if it were me I would tell your realtor that was your best offer and move to the next house. If they come back to you, take money off your original offer for wasting your time.
This is the kind of crap that just burns me up, and it does happen all too often depending upon the market where you live. You made an offer, and they are expected to either make a counter offer or accept your offer. Not come back at you with "What's your best offer?". I'd tell them "None of your damn business!".
Good luck regardless.
My experience has been that more often than not if you are told there is another offer then there is another offer. However . . . for all you know that offer could be $1. I've been in multiple offer situations where my clients haven't increased their original offer and ended up getting the house and I've been in the same situation where they lost it because they didn't move. I've also been on the opposite side where I've seen what the offers were and I've seen people bid against themselves.
In the end, you just have to do what makes sense for you. Are you going to be upset if the house is sold to someone else? Then offer something you feel is fair and don't worry too much about getting a "good deal."
My family member was recently told his offer is the first offer and another "bad" offer just came in, so listing agent asked for highest and best. The house was on the market for 6 months, so two offers at once sounds fishy. Weeks later house is still on the market as active listing. My family member approached listing agent and asked about the status, but was told both offers were too low and non wanted to make it higher. I am 99% sure there were no other offers back than. Seller is refusing to get house to move in ready condition, but he already lost so much in his mortgage payments, he could invest something in this house and sell it even over his asking in no time... It doesn't make sense to me, really. I am watching this house and curious how much it's going to be sold for
My family member was recently told his offer is the first offer and another "bad" offer just came in, so listing agent asked for highest and best. The house was on the market for 6 months, so two offers at once sounds fishy. Weeks later house is still on the market as active listing. My family member approached listing agent and asked about the status, but was told both offers were too low and non wanted to make it higher. I am 99% sure there were no other offers back than. Seller is refusing to get house to move in ready condition, but he already lost so much in his mortgage payments, he could invest something in this house and sell it even over his asking in no time... It doesn't make sense to me, really. I am watching this house and curious how much it's going to be sold for
Offers can come in at any time. Sometimes for some strange reason, they all show up at once even though the property has been listed for a while. Usually, it's because of a price drop. I've also seen it happen where there is more than one offer and none are agreeable to the seller for one reason or another. Sometimes it's because there are too many contingencies (like a home sale) and sometimes it's about money. Either way, the seller rejects them all. So, what you're describing sounds like it could actually be the truth. It might not be, but you'll never really know. It's this level of mystery IMO that results in the poor reputation of agents. People assume something nefarious is going on when they just don't know what's going on. "I didn't get the property. So, something funny must be going on!" is what everyone seems to think.
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