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Am trying to learn about the negotiating process when it comes to real estate. Scenario: If a seller rejects initial low ball offer and no counter offer was made, does that mean the game is over? Could the buyer up the ante? Is this where realtors spar w/ punches of numbers so to speak? Thanks all...Enjoy your Wednesday....
If you are negotiating on your own, it probably means the seller wants a certain price and won't budge. If you have a realtor, he should be able to contact the sellers broker and find out what the hang up is. And your sellers could have accepted another offer -as they had no condtract with you. If you had a broker you should know if another deal was made while you were in negotiations. .
In theory, you could make a new offer every day, jacking up the price by a few hundred $$$, until the seller bites.
In practice, if you get an outright rejection (absent an offer from another buyer in play), you've probably angered the seller. Their thoughts will be, "I will never be able to reach an acceptable purchase price with this person." Therefore, he/she will be unmotivated to attempt to strike a deal with you.
It's not always about the money. A couple of houses ago, I had an offer on the table with my asking price, but they had ridiculous requests - most memorably wanting me to sell them some of my furniture and wrapping it into the purchase price of the house. I flat out rejected it, because I had no intention of trying to conduct negotiations with such an off-the-wall character.
It means your offer was too ridiculous to even bother countering. There are a lot of people out there thinking that sellers will accept anything you throw at them because it's a "buyer's market". I've gotten some stupid offers on some of my properties too and I tell them to come back when they get back in touch with reality.
Are you doing this on your own, or do you have a realtor helping at all? It seems that you're asking a TON of information from a random message board and putting a lot of trust in people that you know nothing of, but you don't seem to be willing to listen to someone you've hired to help you do what they're an expert at, if you've hired someone at all.
Doesn't seem to be a sound business decision for such a large purchase.
It means your offer was too ridiculous to even bother countering. There are a lot of people out there thinking that sellers will accept anything you throw at them because it's a "buyer's market". I've gotten some stupid offers on some of my properties too and I tell them to come back when they get back in touch with reality.
A buyer's agent is free to the buyer. Their cost is paid for by the seller at closing. If this is your first venture into real estate, and you don't have some sort of background in the area I would STRONGLY consider interviewing a few and finding one. There are lots of deals in this particular economy, and an agent will help you find your way to one.
I don't necessarily think EVERYONE needs an agent all the time - my husband and I bought our house without an agent, but he's a lawyer and I'm half a lawyer and we both had some experience in real estate to begin with. For most people, though, this just isn't their area of expertise, and since there is so much that can go wrong - an agent is truly a help.
yep- agree with the others- it was too low. we had multiple offers on the house we sold last year. there was one offer we responded to with a "surely you meant to offer this much on a different house." their offer was about 25-30% below asking price. we sold it less than 1 week later, and at full price. (all the other offers were close to full price).
SanAntonioanByChoice, you should continue with low offers. In the current climate, all you need to do is find one seller who is desperate, and there are plenty out there. If the seller is angered or thinks you are out of touch with reality, that's perfectly fine, move on and find a different home that you may get at an incredible price.
Good luck with your search! I greatly applaud people with the fortitude to take advantage of today's unique situation.
If you put ridiculous things in your offer like they give you their plasma tv as part of the house purchase then yes, in this market, I can see a total rejection.
Otherwise, I think it is a poor negotiation strategy to outright reject in this current climate. Even if the seller counters back at full price, the buyer then clearly knows where the seller stands. I think agents that don't prep their sellers for low-ball offers are doing them a disservice. It makes sense for buyers to test the waters and see if the seller is desperate.
I also just had a situation where the seller outright rejected the contract, AND the buyer was willing to pay close to full price. They just wanted to see how far the seller would come down. If the seller had come down just a couple of thousand in response to the lowball, they would have had a sold home. Instead my buyers moved on because they felt the seller was unreasonable for not even trying to negotiate. Property is NOT sold...
It goes both ways...I would never encourage my seller to lose a potential buyer because they are "testing" the seller. It stinks for sellers, but buyers are responding to market conditions. If you really like the house you can reoffer, but this is not a position of strength for you. It really depends on how much you want the house.
Am trying to learn about the negotiating process when it comes to real estate. Scenario: If a seller rejects initial low ball offer and no counter offer was made, does that mean the game is over? Could the buyer up the ante? Is this where realtors spar w/ punches of numbers so to speak? Thanks all...Enjoy your Wednesday....
You can always try again. They haven't responded probably because they don't see your offer as being viable or realistic, and think it's unlikely that you'll come to a number with which they can be comfortable. Do you lose anything by trying again? No, you don't.
Be careful, though. Where you DO lose something is by starting way too low. If a property is listed at $100 and you feel that, based on research & the usability of the property, comps, etc, a fair price today is $80, you shouldn't start the process by offering $40. Surre, start below the $80 you think is fair, but if you get silly and make in offer of $40, the seller is not going to take you seriously, and will probebly be annoyed by the offer. So even when you go back later with an offer of $50, or $60, he's going to remember you & your fishing expidition, and will likely take a much harder and more firm negotiating stance, seeing you as something othehr than a great buyer. Sometimes that can work out for you, but as a rule it's not going to.
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Thanks all...Enjoy your Wednesday....
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