Buying A Home
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
dealing with un negotiable sellers
My hubby and I put an offer on a house we fell in love with the asking price was 399,900 and we offered 390,000. They countered at full price so we said no and took our offer away. They had a few other offers but none were as high as ours so they came back to us asking for 398,000 we countered with our original offer but now they've recountered with the same 398. .. Basically hubby and I are fed up but we love the house! Tomorrow we are putting an offer of 392 and that's it. Question is what would you guys do?? These people won't budge
Re: dealing with un negotiable sellers
Doesn't sound like you're negotiating much either, though. They came down one and you stayed the same? What's that?
Is it really worth 6K to you to lose your "dream" house? Sorry to tell you this, but at least around here, the economy for the housing market is getting a lot better and prices are going up. If they don't get it now, they probably will in six months to a year.
Why not netogiate over closing costs? Give them what they want and split the closing since they want to get out as much as you want to get in. In my case, even with a foreclosure sale, the bank wanted to get rid of the property that they are will to half the costs with me. (Summer sales are hard here in AZ because no one wants to move then.)
But if you're willing to start all over again and keep looking for that perfect house... that might be the better option. I just know myself and I had little tolerance for spending so much time looking for a place. So once I found a few places that fit the bill I put in offers or moved on.
my read shelf:
Agree with above. You just need to determine the max you are willing to pay and what the given property is worth to YOU rather than worrying about how much the sellers asked/negotiated/came down. In my area people generally price homes for what they are worth, so they generally sell for whatever the asking price is... Rather than pricing it for some number that is arbitrarily more than its worth and whittling down when an offer comes in.
Plus you have to remember what a house is "worth" on paper may be different from what it's worth to you. In our most recent house search there were plenty of houses that were "worth more" than the one we bought on paper in terms of granite countertops, sqft, and finishes, but we bought based on location (lakefront, lot size, 10 minutes from work for each of us) which to us was worth far more than many of the more updates houses, thus we were willing to pay a little more for it.
What is for goal price? I would offer it and say it is best and final offer and be prepared to walk away if they do not accept.
In our area (with low inventory) houses are selling fast and at or over the asking price. Here asking for closing costs just is not on the table.
What is your realtor advising? I think offering the same original price when they came down was a mistake. ( I would offer 394500 to show you are serious.)
We are also house hunting and I understand the mentality of wanting a good deal and not paying asking price, but I would still counter a bit higher like 394 and meet somewhere in the middle. Like PP said maybe ask for closing costs.
I just don't see letting pride get in the way of obtaining your dream home. A few thousand over the course of a mortgage is nothing.
We're under contract now on a house that we bid full asking price on, and in my opinion it's given us an upper hand in the after inspection negotiations. They seem to be more willing to fix whatever we asked for & I think it's because we gave them what they wanted. It's would be especially true if you are using an FHA home which usually carries a lot of extra expenses for the seller (we are going convention a but there were still things we needed fixed).
Also, every $1,000 adds something like $10/month to the mortgage (that's what our loan officer said) so you're talking about $60/month- if you can't spare the $60 maybe you are in over your head anyway and should walk away.
If your just upset over the illusion that everyone should be willing to negotiate, well just like you have the right to bid what you think the house is worth to YOU, the seller can accept whatever offer they see fit. If you can't/won't budge then you need to walk away.
We had a similar problem negotiating on a house that didn't end up passing inspections (all that negotiating for nothing!). What it basically comes down to is what the other posters said, is it worth it to you to lose the house over 6K?
At least in our area, it is no longer a buyers' market. What my sweetie and I did was honestly ask ourselves that, if another buyer came along and bought the house for X amount of money, how would we feel? How about Y amount of money? If somewhere along the line, we offered the amount we figured we would feel absolutely devastated to have lost that house over.
But we also walked away from that first house with the terrible negotiations, we found an even better house (2 months later) where negotiations went smoothly and we're closing next week. So, if this really isn't the house for you, there is hope that something even better will come along. You just don't want to be always thinking, "Well, we could've had our dream house..."
my read shelf:
Many times people get so caught up in negotiations that they forget about the personal or human side of this.....that there are people involved. I would have your Realtor ask why they are being to strict on the price and see what the deal is. Also I would ask your Realtor's opinion of the asking price.
For example...I have clients who like millions of others are losing a ton on their house because values were so inflated when they bought. One client in particular is losing 20%. When they were not willing to budge on the price the buyers agent called me and asked why my client's were not willing to move. I expressed my apologies for seeming so harsh with the negotiations and then I explained how much they were losing and that there isnt any way they can come down because they have to pay the bank at settlement since they are losing so much. I sent the Buyers agent the public records info proving how much money was borrowed to buy the house initially and then the buyers were much more understanding.
Of course the only reason this worked was because the house was also listed at a reasonable price. A home very similar had just sold around the corner for more that the price we were asking.
Finally I will say that at the end of the day you arent buying a shirt where you can go get one you like just as much around the corner and be happy. If you really love the house that much, $9,000 isnt a whole lot of money. It will only change your monthly payment by a little bit.
Best of luck
I agree with most of the other posters that, unless the few extra thou is really a dealbreaker or if you feel the house is overpriced anyway, it is worth it.
But I DO sympathize. In a nutshell, the first house I was interested in I was going to purchase through a special, local first-time homebuyer program. Because of this, my mortgage payment would have been the same regardless of the home's purchase price (of course, there were limits). As such, I was much more concerned about the condition of the home than I was about the purchase price. I offered them their full purchase price (which if anything was a bit on the high side) and added in some repairs I wanted done.
I thought, "Wow! What a great deal for them!" They get a purchase price much more than anyone else would give them...especially considering I was the ONLY showing they had had in six months. The repairs I wanted...which were desperately needed anyway...totaled less than $5K. I was shocked and stunned when they came back with only fixing one thing. Still went through with the contract, though it eventually fell apart because they were just such nightmares to deal with.
And, while everyone told me "hey, business is business"...and I'm telling you the same thing
...it just GRATED on my sense of "fairness". Probably why I am not a hot shot mogul, lol.
I suspect that is what is bothering you also. I totally get it. You are offering them very close to their asking price anyway, so why can't they negotiate at least a LITTLE more. But, at the end of the day, for whatever reason. They are not. If you are already at your top dollar for the property, then it makes sense to walk like you all already did, but if it is just pride, don't let that get in the way of your dream house.