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.
What kinds of lowball offers have buyers been successful with? Has anyone been able to buy for less than 75% of the asking price? How often have your lowball offers been turned down?
Last edited by Bhaalspawn; 07-27-2008 at 03:06 PM..
No one wants to talk about their experiences with making lowball offers? Is it just me, or is this a sellers only forum?
If you're a seller, how much higher is your listing price than the lowest price you would accept for an offer?
An offer is better than no offer, but it has to be making some sense, otherwise you can forget it.
Not necessarily..When the buyers know that the "sellers" have relocated, then they KNOW they can up the ante or take advantage of lowballing! Believe me...we had it done to us! We ended up taking 25k off and negotiating with the buyers.It wasn't pretty but knew we had to take it since we had 2 mortgages to pay! so we caved in. Depends how desperate people are.
This time around we won't be lol..........since we will sell first then buy!
No one wants to talk about their experiences with making lowball offers? Is it just me, or is this a sellers only forum?
If you're a seller, how much higher is your listing price than the lowest price you would accept for an offer?
Not to be funny, but I thought this was a real estate forum, for buyers and sellers. I'm a buyer, and I've found lots of useful stuff here. Just sayin'.
I just placed an offer 25% below list. Seller accepted a LOWER offer that had come in the day before. House has been on the market for so long the sellers jumped at the first offer, and accepted within hours. My offer came in less than 12 hours after the first one for more money, but they had already accepted the other. Wonder how much I left on the table..........??
Hopefully you'll find another good buying opportunity tomorrow.
Sellers--when you set your listing price, realistically, how much below your listing price would you be willing to accept?
I'm wondering if it would be realistic to be able to get a 1400 ft Detroit area condo that lists for $80,000 for, say, $60,000. I suppose it couldn't hurt to go around lowballi' it and see if anyone bites.
I don't think there is a universal answer to how low a seller will go. A major factor in the equation is how much they owe. I have sold houses with $0 of wiggle room and I have sold houses with $100K of wiggle room.
With all the talk about banks working with homeowners I have yet to see it happen. I have a friend who is about to lose her home because her bank will not accept a short sale.
List price means nothing, until one has the price as compared to comps, bank appraisal, cost to construct the home, barn, etc...and cost to buy the land in the area. Lowballin by 25%, on a home that is 50% out of reality, is not lowballin at all.
First find the cost to buy the land, install utilities, and build a similar home to what you are thinking of buying...then drop that price by the 20% we might see homes lower over the next 1-2 years, and that would be a good "lowballin" offer, IMHO...
Of course that is with the majority of homes that have seen average price increase over the last 10 years of 3-5%/year, not the super inflated areas like Vegas that need to dump 80% or more to come back down to plante Earth. The cities across america that have been invaded by flippers and non-documetated interest only mortgage manipulators...I'd stay the hell away from those areas until the chaos settles further in a couple of years...
Friends who come to see my house (house and property are beautiful) ask all the time if I got a great deal. My answer: I got a fair deal... what's a great deal in this market?
The house we bought is an older home (built in 1950) but had tons of beautiful updates. The sellers family had built the house and he bought the house from his parents 15 years ago. The house we estimated in a decent market was easily worth $400K. In addition it had a beautiful backyard with tons of finished landscaping projects worth another $30K-$40K. It was originally listed in Nov 07 at $379K. In Jan 08, with an accepted offer already on another house he dropped it to $359K (which was more in line with neighborhood comps). I made my first offer on Jan 20th for $315K... obviously lowball. He entertained it, however wouldn't counter with an offer that low. His realtor told mine his rock bottom price was $350K.
We waited one month... In March told them we were still interested in the house and we would offer $330 net-to-seller with a 6% concession to cover closing costs. He sat on it for 48hrs (obviously working the math) and accepted our offer.... for $330K net to seller, 'as is' pending a passing home inspection. We closed May 1. I later found out that we were his one and only offer. His house was listed for a total of 93 days. Average list in our market is over 180 days. In fact there are homes still listing since Spring 07.
So did we get a 'great deal'... no we got a fair deal. I'm confident that we got the lowest price we could've gotten for this home. He was able to list, sell and upgrade to a larger house in the the same town in less than four months. My realtor said it was the happiest closing he had ever been too. Both parties were completely satisfied. In the time since our closing he and I have become friends (he's obviously attached to the house he grew up in). He's helped me out with a few outdoor projects I've had and in turn I've given him some help with his computers (what I do for a living). He confided in me that he never expected to sell less than the number he had in his head, but when he factored in the great deal he was getting on his new home, it made sense to pass it forward and close quickly.
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.
We ended up taking 25k off and negotiating with the buyers.It wasn't pretty but knew we had to take it since we had 2 mortgages to pay! so we caved in. Depends how desperate people are.
