Although you may feel insulted by the offer, you should feel more insulted by all those people that have looked at your house and not made an offer. Although you feel your house is priced correctly, NWI right now has far too many houses priced over 300k. So if you havae a buyer that has shown interest in your home, you should try to negotiate the offer. The buyer was fishing, but by rejecting the offer that buyer will just jump to the next pond. Listen to your REALTOR, we are trained at helping you make good business decisions.

Sat Mar 29 2008, 11:00

Counter at what you are willing to accept, and then you will know how serious they are about buying!

You have the right to reject any offer!

Good Luck!

Sat Mar 29 2008, 09:18

maybe you paid too much for your house
best solution may be to keep it
you like it, thats why you bought it, right?
5-6 years, maybe worth $400K again

anyways

good luck

Sat Mar 29 2008, 09:14

JR: How often do you lie during negotiations, "real estate pro" that you are?

Who is lying here? Why bother countering when you really have a offer over 5k over unless you don't or don't think the 405k offer can unload their house either. Trying to get the real facts and motivation. Understand "Real Estate Pro" that you are.

JR: I apologize, I didn't know there was another offer when I made the post.

Sat Mar 29 2008, 07:47

JR: How often do you lie during negotiations, "real estate pro" that you are?

Who is lying here? Why bother countering when you really have a offer over 5k over unless you don't or don't think the 405k offer can unload their house either. Trying to get the real facts and motivation. Understand "Real Estate Pro" that you are.

Sat Mar 29 2008, 07:27

Dear John:
There are a lot of bottom fishers out there, however, do not completely reject the offer totally. I manage an office in Morristown NJ and on 2 occassions in the last few months buyers offered 100k less than asking and yet came up to close to asking. "Doesn't hurt to try"
Play their game by countering them a little less than your asking price and see where it goes. If they are willing to keep a dialogue going with you, it may just happen.
DO NOT BE INSULTED, remeber this is a business transaction - take out your emotions, remember they do not have emotional ties to the home like you do. And try to put on the buyers shoes and walk in them.
It was good that they did make an offer. See where it takes you. Good luck!

Sat Mar 29 2008, 06:52

Hi John Swalwell,

You have a lot of good input on this thread. Here's my 2 cents:

In the rare circumstance where I know the buyers are not serious, have a reputation for lowballing only, make lots of offers in the hope of finding the needle in a haystack......then, I advise my sellers to "not counter."

If the buyer does not fit the description above, I advise my sellers to counter....and to invest minimal time, energy or emotion in the process. Don't get insulted....Don't invest energy trying to "figure out" if they will or won't come up. Approach it as follows: Keep the door open, stay calm, stay polite, set your emotions aside (I realize....easier said than done). Then, deliver a counter. Don't insult the buyer, nor let it get to you.

Keep doors open, and emotions out of it.

If you decline to counter, invite the buyer to resubmit another offer, rather than just say "no, thank you." The latter might discourage them from coming back, while the invitiation lets them know that they have not alienated you.

Sat Mar 29 2008, 06:28

Linda Carroll wrote, "I agree with Karen's answer--don't counter this offer, but have your agent tell the Buyer's agent to bring in a more acceptable offer."

I'm curious. Why do you believe that it is better to have them make another offer rather than counter with something that's more palatable - even the full price? Isn't that risking having the buyer just walk off? Is it so that the seller isn't locked into it if another offer comes along?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JR: You didn't ask me, but countering with full price is not countering.Asking for something realistic is. Don't you think someone who offers 300,000 on a 400,000 house knows they're lowballing?

John: To clarify, we have a contract on our house for 5K more than the asking price. Although that offer is contingent on the sale of the buyers home. The historical district that our house is located in is surrounded by many homes of significance, including ours. /

JR: How many other offers did you have and where did they fall? By the way, it isn't a good idea to post your house along with what your offers are. You have just informed your "in contract" buyers that someone else has made an offer of 100,000 less on a house that they are paying OVER list price for. If I were you I'd remove your answer. Way to make people second guess what they're doing. And people don't need realtors, do they?

Sat Mar 29 2008, 06:10

Pricetellsitall: The Realtor should just tell the lowballer there is an offer on the house already. You control the situation - it is your house. You can do whatever you want. Is this your first time selling a house?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How often do you lie during negotiations, "real estate pro" that you are?

Sat Mar 29 2008, 06:03

Do you know what the most powerful word in the English dictionary is? NO

Fri Mar 28 2008, 22:40

I'm confused... why are you considering a lowball offer if you have a contract on your house already for 5K above the asking price?

As for feeling insulted, please don't. I am on the other side now. I am thinking of bidding 15% less than the asking price (even though I think it is fairly priced) because I heard that the seller is very, very eager. I like the place but why would I want to pay more than I have to? Would you be offended by a 15% discount (just curious). Because I would be very disappointed if the seller flat out rejected it without giving me an opportunity to up the ante, and I would feel too awkward and embarrassed to make another offer (because I would think insulted sellers wouldn't want to deal with me again, and I'm just not a pushy person). I would want the seller to make a counter offer and then we can happily meet half way.... So don't be offended. It's not a reflection on your house. The buyer is just hoping he'll get lucky because we're all being optimistic especially with the down market.

Fri Mar 28 2008, 22:17

The Realtor should just tell the lowballer there is an offer on the house already. You control the situation - it is your house. You can do whatever you want. Is this your first time selling a house?

Fri Mar 28 2008, 21:52

That's great you have an offer for more than your asking price. What's the problem? Tell the offending lowballer to take a hike then.

Fri Mar 28 2008, 21:20

If your house is priced "aggressively", why is this the first offer you've seen? Was your house just listed? If not and it has been sitting awhile maybe your house and everyone else's house in the neighborhood is worth 25% less. That's why none of them have sold.

If you just listed and think your house is worth 400k then just ignore the offer. You'll get your price since your house is worth 400k. Just stand pat since your house is worth 400k. Let's see who is right, you or the market.

Fri Mar 28 2008, 20:41

True story that just recently happened to me:

I'm a listing agent on a property that receives a low ball offer. The buyers that submitted the offer were being aggressive, but who can blame them with all the suped up hype on tv and the headlines. Anyway, my seller felt similar to you and 'rejected' the offer and refused to counter. When the buyer was notified they were insulted they were not even given a shot by the seller by at minimum not countering with something. They seemed to feel snubbed. When this was communicated to the seller then the seller recounted and countered by dropping the price but the buyers were too mad at that point. They walked and now are in contract on something right down the road.

Things to think about:
Put yourself in my sellers shoes after the buyers walked.
Average days on market is 365 days, this was the first offer in 4months. There is a saying in real estate that your first offers will be your best.

Good luck,
Susan Walker

Fri Mar 28 2008, 20:36

Linda Carroll wrote, "I agree with Karen's answer--don't counter this offer, but have your agent tell the Buyer's agent to bring in a more acceptable offer."

I'm curious. Why do you believe that it is better to have them make another offer rather than counter with something that's more palatable - even the full price? Isn't that risking having the buyer just walk off? Is it so that the seller isn't locked into it if another offer comes along?

Fri Mar 28 2008, 20:01

I have answered very low offers with no counter, and had the buyer raise their offer and then we countered and came to an agreement. I think it depends a lot on how long your house has been on the market, and what other offers you have gotten.I do agree that unless your house is grossly overpriced, that's a terrible offer.

Fri Mar 28 2008, 19:49

Remember, your goal is to sell your house at an acceptable price, your goal is not to show great respect for the buyer (nor is it their goal to show great respect for you) Some buyers are going around giving low offers, well, if their offer gets accepted they just got an awesome deal, which is why some buyers are doing it.

Since your goal is to sell your house at an acceptable price, you should counter. This will show the that you aren't desparate to sell, and will also start the negotiation process, who knows, maybe they like the house and with good negotiating on the part of your agent could offer an acceptable price.

Fri Mar 28 2008, 19:45

I've posted answers dozens of times to people who say, "I want to make a low offer, but I don't want to insult the seller." And my response to them has been: "Don't worry about insulting the seller. Make an offer that works for you. The seller should be insulted by the people who looked at his property and didn't even make an offer. Make an offer and see what happens. There are three possibilities: Your offer is accepted. Your offer is rejected. Or your offer is countered." Accepting is fine. Countering is fine. But you'll never know unless you make an offer."

And I'm telling you the same thing. Don't be insulted. You got an offer. You can accept it, reject it, or counter it. You've decided the offer is too low, so you won't accept it. That's fine. That leaves two options: rejecting it or countering it. So, what do you have to lose by countering at, say, 98% of your list price? Maybe the buyer is fully capable, but in today's market just wants to save some money. Maybe the buyer can only afford 90% of your asking price. Yes, that could be too low for you to accept. But the buyer may have figured that after some negotiating you'd end up around that figure. There could be lots of reasons.