It has always been our value system that a transaction must be a win/win situation for both parties or no deal. With our initial buyer consultation we go over the offer process, and how we come up with our reccommendations and advice on what to offer. If our clients are inclined to low ball one of the points we make is that if you offer too low you run the risk of insulting the seller so that he won't even counter. The other is that you don't want to make an offer so low that the seller must bring money to the table for the priveledge of selling you their home. Most of all, we point out that if the seller feels like they are being taken advantage of, if there are issues with the sale, or if you need them to cooperate with a glitch, they may find themselves on the short end of the stick. Win/Win is always the best way to go.

Sometimes we have clients that are just bound and determined to offer the lowball deal, and so we offer it as they dictate, they end up losing the house because they insulted the seller, and then they listen the next time.

if theyre your buyer clients are you having a buyer consultation to go over the homebuying process & methods to craft attractive offers? I agree with the previous post, are you reviewing the comps with them? How do they justify their offer price/terms? Another tactic might also be to run the comps on the listing agent & listing office to see how close to asking price they sell & what type of experience they have in selling homes like the subject property.

There are alot of buyers out there that want to write alot of offers and see what sticks, if that's their agenda and your comfortable working with them, then you'll just have to identify properties that are more likely to have "lowball offers" entertained more agressively. Some agents prefer to work with more traditional buyers who write offers based upon comps, others are willing to spin the wheel, it all depends on your own business plan/model & time involvement.

If your the listing agent, run the same comps on the buyers agent, ask to see what they base their offer on to flesh out the motivations of the buyer & situation. I counsel my sellers that there are buyers that love to attempt to write "lowball" offers. If all your getting is "lowball" offers, perhaps they're seeing something in the property that everyone on the selling side is overlooking.

Hope that helps,

Show them the comps, and explainto them what people look at. I see a lot of them trying to get something for nothing, but the serious buyer will understand. Good Luck!