DH and I have found a property that we like. It is a newly built townhouse that has been on the market for 500+ days. Our realtor said that six months ago, he had two other couples put in offers on the place, but the seller rejected both.
Both couples offered full list price (which hasn't dropped since it was listed), but requested the seller cover the closing costs. The seller rejected and didn't give a counter offer (so I guess one could assume, the counter offer was that the buyer pay list price and closing cost).
Would it even be worth our time to pursue? Paying list plus closing is above what we want to spend, so we need a negotiation one way or another. Would 6 months make that much of a difference given that it's been listed 500+ days? TIA!
Re: Seller negotiation question
If this realtor had 2 offers not work out, I can only imagine how many other people offered and it's still for sale. I wouldn't do it because 1) they are not flexible after being on the market for nearly 2 years and 2) it's above what you want to spend and 3) they've not dropped the price which makes me think they are crazy. Do you want to deal with crazy sellers?
There are several neighborhoods near me in which folks have listed their homes for the very upper end (if not more) of what they are worth "just to see how much they can get". Literally. the reason cited for a rejection of a reasonable offer was "well, these sellers don't really *need* to sell, they are just seeing if they can get that price out of it. Which is totally lame. Maybe this is what those sellers are doing.
That said, it doesn't hurt to offer. I would just decide up front, a firm bottom line, both fot purchase price and what you expect for closing costs. And don't budge! It will be tempting once you are emotionally involved to say " well i guess we could do that" but yuo have to be firm but let them know that's your final.
Plus Not everyone selling a home has the cash to pay other people's closing costs, perhaps you would have better luck whittling them down on purchase price? I know me, personally, if for some strange reason we were to receive 2 offers on the home we are silling (i wish!) and one offer was for $100k, with no request for us to contribute to closing costs, and other offer was for $105k but they wanted us to $5k towards closing, we would probably choose the lower price but where we didn't have to pay anything at closing. Even though When you add it all up, they are oth equal offers. We just don't have the cash flow to do that. We don't stand to make any money from selling' so we would literally be using part of our savings, which we can't use because we are buying another house.
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I really think you made the right choice, good luck finding the perfect place