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My husband and his brother inherited a home when their parents passed away last year. The home is in great shape, but the kitchen and bathrooms haven't been updated. The market is a small town, not even a bedroom community to any larger towns, and the average time on the market is often months - it can be a year or so. It's a pretty slow market.
As you can imagine, the home is an ongoing expense - utilities, insurance, yard maintenance, etc. But we don't want to give it away. It has some very big positives such as a 3 acre lot, a big shop area, beautiful trees on the lot, a nice quiet neighborhood of similar homes, good square footage, huge rooms and big closets, etc.
We listed it about a month ago with a broker who is part of a national chain. The agent is from that small town and well connected, as is the broker. We are having an estate sale this week (nearly done with it now) and there has been a lot of interest in the house generated by this sale as well as the MLS listing.
Yesterday we got an email from the agent. We have an offer on the house! Yay, right? Well, not so fast. The offer is $30,000 below list price - and the listing price was fair and reasonable to begin with ($225,000 - the offer is $195,000).
But hey, it's an offer on paper and so let's try to make it work.
We emailed the agent back and said "We'd like to see the written offer, we'd like to counter offer at $212,000, and by the way, we need a prequalification letter from the lender."
She immediately emailed us back and said, "The prospective buyer is a friend of the broker's, and the broker said that there will be no problem with their financing. Also, the broker said that this buyer doesn't like to go back and forth, so this may be their best offer."
Grrrrrrr. Who is she working for? And who is the broker working for? I can guarantee you that if she was bringing an offer to her broker from another brokerage, that broker would insist on a prequalification letter from the lender, and would not recommend or imply that the seller shouldn't make a counter on such a low offer.
Not only that, but the offer came in yesterday in the early afternoon and we have yet to see the scanned written offer.
So far I'm not feeling happy and confident about this whole thing. This is yet another reminder to me as to why I really dislike the way business is done in small towns so often.
I sold real estate for years in a much larger market and there is no way I'd just roll over and say, one month into a listing and with the first offer on paper, while a home is getting so much attention anyway (there have been multiple showings and several requests for utility bills, additional information, etc from other potential buyers), "Don't worry about proof of ability to pay and I'd like to caution you about countering." WHAT? What sort of buyer lowballs and doesn't expect a counter offer? I'll tell you - the type of buyer that I probably don't want to deal with all the way to the closing table.
And where's our written offer? It's been nearly 24 hours and still nothing to us on paper? Even though the offer is ON paper? And why is the agent emailing us instead of just calling and putting a bit of personal warmth into the equation?
NOT IMPRESSED SO FAR.
This is mostly just a vent.
Anyway, we emailed her back and said, "We are going to make a counter offer. And part of that counter offer is going to be that we receive a prequalification letter from their lender by Tuesday. We are also going to counter on price. Please send us the written offer as soon as possible so we can review all the terms."
I know you've had a rough year. This kind of crap woukd irritate me too.
Stand your ground on this issue.
(But I might be inclined to be a little open minded and flexible about the price. Your mental health is valuable. )
LOL you are not kidding - it's been a rough TWO years actually and now the fun has begun with my mom's decline and those challenges.
We're definitely inclined to be open minded about the price, especially since the proceeds will be split between the two brothers so the difference really isn't as great when it's divided by two. But we still don't want to be taken advantage of. And after all, she just recommended the listing price a month ago - and we took her advice based on comps. She didn't think it was overpriced a month ago so I don't think it is suddenly overpriced now. The market hasn't changed significantly in one month.
The thing that bothered us the most though wasn't the lowball initial offer - we expect that sort of thing. It was the attitude of the listing agent - she just doesn't seem to be giving us good advice or even respecting the fact that she represents US, not her broker's buddy.
I see two choices: either do it the old fashioned way, knowing that nothing you agree to outside of a written offer, counter, and contract is enforceable, or refuse to consider (much less counter offer) anything that is not in writing. Of course, if you insist on doing it the right way, you might lose the "offer".
Even in a busy market, I see this all the time. The right way is not always the way people like to do business. It's annoying, frustrating, and a completely bad practice but what can you do? Sometimes it is the only way to get things done. I can't tell you how many times I've been told or looked at like I was crazy for wanting to do things the right way. For some people, you might as well be suggesting that they pay for the house in pennies.
Note: about the price. If it is a slow market, the amount you once thought it might be worth (whether it was suggested by your agent or not) is meaningless. It's worth whatever someone will pay and you are willing to take.
Kathryn- take a deep breath & have a nice big glass of sweet tea. You've had a really rough couple of years and it's not getting better with your family. All misery & chaos seems to have have been dumped in your lap lately.
Try not to get emotionally involved with this sale. Keep telling yourself it's just business, don't take it personally. It's just not worth it. Sit down with your hubby and see how he wants to proceed. This is one time you should hand off the problem to hubby & his family.
It's one thing to cross the t's & dot all the i's. Just keep in mind it could also cause them to lose the sale.
Although I like your current plan. Do it and see what happens. Good luck
I see two choices: either do it the old fashioned way, knowing that nothing you agree to outside of a written offer, counter, and contract is enforceable, or refuse to consider (much less counter offer) anything that is not in writing. Of course, if you insist on doing it the right way, you might lose the "offer".
Even in a busy market, I see this all the time. The right way is not always the way people like to do business. It's annoying, frustrating, and a completely bad practice but what can you do? Sometimes it is the only way to get things done. I can't tell you how many times I've been told or looked at like I was crazy for wanting to do things the right way. For some people, you might as well be suggesting that they pay for the house in pennies.
Note: about the price. If it is a slow market, the amount you once thought it might be worth (whether it was suggested by your agent or not) is meaningless. It's worth whatever someone will pay and you are willing to take.
+1 bbronston's post makes sense to me, although I am not a realtor myself.
Under the circumstances, once I got the written offer I'd go ahead and sell it for the lowball price. Here's what I am thinking:
(1) In a slow market, selling prices are often quite a bit lower than asking prices, as you know. Your selling price is less than 15% below asking, and you are in a slow market. While lower than you hoped, the offer seems within reason to me and it would get the house off your hands.
(2) As you are undoubtedly discovering, keeping up a house, paying utilities, taxes, and so on, can get expensive as time passes.
(3) Inheriting a home is a situation that sometimes can be full of emotional landmines. If it was me, I'd just want to sell it and move on rather than risk getting stuck in emotional quicksand. But that's for you to judge, not me.
Then, there is no offer.
What you have is low-ball fishing.
Actually, we do have an offer, in writing. Just got it, accompanied by a terse note from "our" realtor stating that this is their only offer - there will be no counter offer.
So I'm thinking that the guys (my husband and his brother) will simply reject the offer. We'll see. They're discussing it. They may counter offer anyway, but I think it's hardly worth the effort.
Oh well, sounds like someone wants to flip the house. I can't blame them for trying but personally I think it's too soon in the game to crater to such a low ball offer.
+1 bbronston's post makes sense to me, although I am not a realtor myself.
Under the circumstances, once I got the written offer I'd go ahead and sell it for the lowball price. Here's what I am thinking:
(1) In a slow market, selling prices are often quite a bit lower than asking prices, as you know. Your selling price is less than 15% below asking, and you are in a slow market. While lower than you hoped, the offer seems within reason to me and it would get the house off your hands.
(2) As you are undoubtedly discovering, keeping up a house, paying utilities, taxes, and so on, can get expensive as time passes.
(3) Inheriting a home is a situation that sometimes can be full of emotional landmines. If it was me, I'd just want to sell it and move on rather than risk getting stuck in emotional quicksand. But that's for you to judge, not me.
I know what you're saying, believe me. It's tempting and I'm not saying that the guys won't end up just taking the offer and being done with it.
But two things are very irksome about this scenario:
1) The realtor's attitude. She has yet to actually pick up the phone and call either brother and discuss options. Personally, none of us much cares for these short, terse emails. They give the impression that she doesn't have our best interests in mind. No explanation, no reasoning - other than, "The buyer doesn't like to go back and forth and this is his final offer." OK but that doesn't mean it's a GOOD offer. What if he'd come in at $185,000? Or $190,000? I mean, what's the cutoff? She just listed the house! She just gave us all sorts of reasons for the current asking price - which we were fine with. It sounded reasonable to us. IN FACT, we even discussed dropping the price right before the estate sale to maximize the effect and her marketing, and she told us she didn't see any need to drop the price so soon because there was so much interest in the house!
2) The potential buyer is her broker's repeat customer - ie, an investor most likely. Well, that's fine, except we don't like feeling like we're being bullied, which is what it feels like when someone comes in with a low ball offer, and says, "No counter offers - this is our final offer. Period."
OK - and we reject your final offer. So far, that's what the two brothers are in agreement on. I did suggest that we ask the realtor if she even thinks it's worth the time and trouble to counter offer.
Though the house is an expense to keep up, it's not a terrible expense - it's more just a hassle. The house itself is in great shape so maintenance issues are few and far between so far. The utilities, even through the summer last year, weren't that high (the home is well insulated). As of this weekend, all the contents will be cleared out via the estate sale, so we don't have to worry much about breakins. (The crime rate is really low in this area anyway.) In other words, we're inconvenienced but in no way are we desperate.
Who knows, we may end up selling the house for an even lower price to someone else later. But I just don't feel like we have to take the first offer (the house has been listed for about three or four weeks but just got on the MLS about two weeks ago and has gotten numerous showings as well as numerous requests for more information - so interest is definitely there). Also, the estate sale guy is telling us that there is a lot of interest in the house generated via the estate sale. So I think it's too soon to blink.
Just my personal opinion (and my husband's and brother in law's) but we don't like being bullied and that's what this offer feels like.
We sold our former home a few years ago in a slow market. We were one of only five homes that was priced above $250k and let me tell you, that's not a good place to be in a slow market. We had several lowball offers prior to accepting the decent offer we did take. The offer we took was $20,000 more than any of the other offers that came in. We weren't sad we held out, though it was nerve wracking at the time. Oh, and the time it was on the market was only four months. That was the longest four months of my life, but it all worked out.
If you don't have to sell it immediately, keep it on the market.
When your contract is up with this realtor, find a new one.
It sounds like you are more insulted by your realtor's behavior than you are at the amount offered.
I would send an email to your realtor and tell her how you feel.
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