Putting in an Offer

hello143 · March 2013

How low is acceptable to "low ball" your offer? For example if you saw a place listed for $130,000 but wanted to offer $115,000, is that too low? We had someone tell us that would like a "slap in the face" to the seller and to not do it.

entropicbeauty · March 2013

Depends on your market. I put an offer in for $50k on a house that was listed for $70k and the seller accepted it....the house had also been on the market for over 5 months and the seller was eager to sell.

If the house is in a desirable location

hello143 · March 2013

I will keep that in mind! That makes sense, Thanks!

TX-Bride · March 2013

As pp said depends on the market and how motivated the seller is. Don't be afraid to get rejected and be ready for a counter offer. There was plenty of times our realtor said the same thing, but to his surprise, some sellers entertained&

lildevil968 · March 2013

I really don't think offering $15k below asking price is a low ball offer. Offering $30k under asking price is pushing it, but you should be ready for the seller to counter offer with a higher price.

Millie1984 · March 2013

I agree that 15k lower than the asking price should not be such a slap in the face to the seller that they won't want to counter. Also, if you are working with a realtor s/he should be able to advise you based on how long it has been on the market a

GeorgiaRiah · March 2013

My house was listed for 125K. I put in an offer of 108K plus 7K is closing costs. I ended up getting the house for 115K with 7K in closing costs. Essentially 108K net for the seller. Do what makes you comfortable but be prepare

zzbb · February 2014

This is an old post but bumping to see what other offers have been excepted on the 125,000 range? If you placed an offer what was it??

CMichele11 · February 2014

We are looking at a house listed at 139,900. We offered 125 with 3% closing. They countered at full price with closing costs. We walked away but may resubmit an offer this week because we can't find anything else we like.

Sisugal · February 2014

Totally depends you your local market. In our area there is at least 10K you can work with when negotiating price. Very little to no seller paying toward closing costs here, but reasonable financial concessions with safety issues upon inspection.

shopgirl78 · February 2014

Ours was listed at 220k. We offered 209k with closing with warranty. They countered, we walked. 2 weeks later they accepted...

cakergirl · February 2014

Depends on the house and neighborhoos. I would ask your realtor for comparable and see how this one stacks up, not just to current homes on the market but to recently sold similar homes in the area. When we bought our house it was listed by 127,000 and we offered 120,000, they only came down to 125,000. It was still a good deal so we went for it. When we went to sell a few years later, we listed at 135,000 (against our realtors advice, lol) but we had no Viewings or inquiries so we dropped it down to 129,000. We received an offer of 118,000 plus 3k of closing cost, but we refused to accept that offer based on comparables. We could have afforded to sell at that, but when we went to the buyers and showed them all the comps that ranged from 120-127,000 they came back with a new offer of 124,500 (no closing costs) which we accepted. We are very mathematical, scienticfic, statistic oriented people, so for us it was all about numbers. For us it had very little to do with how much we "wanted" or "needed" to get out of the home, or how much the buyers could afford to pay or wanted to pay. We simply set a goal based on comps and said "we won't sell it for less than xxx". But every seller is different. Had we been desperate to sell in a hurry, we may have gone for the offer of 15k less. On the other hand, had we needed the extra cash for some reason or been in a tight financial spot, we may have been more stubborn and insisted on waiting for a price closer to our asking price (which may have never came). Fortunately we were in a financial position to just see what the house was worth in the current market and wait for a buyer willing to pay it. Our realtor was great in both the buying and selling process of "feeling out" the other parties to see if they were anxious to sell/buy, or more set in their price so we would have an idea of how flexible they would be. He also worked really hard at getting us the data on comparables. P.S. every market is different on closing costs, too. Our realtor reiterated that it is rare for sellers to pay closing costs in our location whereas in other markets its common.

cakergirl · February 2014

P.S.S apparently in our area it is extremely unusual to sell for less than 98% of asking. The list pries are usually pretty close to the actual sell price. They rarely sell for more than a few thousand below asking price in the $125k range. Whereas in other areas there may be a wider range or gap.

zzbb · February 2014

A follow up we ended up passing on the house that we were considering for 125 it just wasn't worth it where it was located and the work that needed done. We did find a much nicer house listed at 115000 that has been on the market and had the price dropped at 6-10 k increments 4 Times in 5 months. It needs some outside work but majority of the inside and costly repairs had been done. We offered 105,000 plus 3 k closing cost. They countered 113,000 and the 3k so we accepted. I feel like it's a great deal we just need to get ours sold now

juliebeannn · February 2014

Congrats on having your offer accepted!!

Mom987 · March 2014

We offered 5% below asking, which seemed somewhat typical but that was a long time ago.

scotter77 · March 2014

the worst thing that a seller can do is say no or counter. if you want to offer $115k, submit at $115k.

Good luck!

Fingerscrossed14 · October 2014

We just made an offer for 7% less than the asking price plus 3% closing costs. We are hoping that they counter with 5% below asking and the 3%. Not too confident though because this house just hit the market. We shall see.

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