Offer on a house, would you be offened...

[seashoreCM]

Next home we offered on they listed it for $299,000. We offered around $270,000. They got offended and wouldn't counter. A year later they sold the home for $255,000..

Just because they did not counter does not mean they were offended. They might not have known what to say without offending you!

Or they were not ready to split the difference.

Or they were not ready to do both of (1) come down a meaningful amount and (2) split the difference after that.

... ugly and poorly decorated ...

Of course you would not use those words but you could say things like "I am going to have to upgrade the electrical system to have more breakers and circuits" or "I am going to have to put down new linoleum on this floor". It is okay to knock twice the price of a fix off of your offer to take into account the time and trouble to perform the fix.

If you don't want to pay that amount (that the broker suggests you offer) for the house, nothing lost if you lose the house because you insult the seller with a lesser offer.

More important than a buyer's broker is your own lawyer who knows real estate. The lawyer can see that the paperwork is done right, that you are not suckered into a subprime mortgage loan, when you can get out of the deal if you find something wrong with the house, etc.

 

[Green Tea]

Why do you care if you are being rude? It's business. If they think it is worth more, they say no. If they think 134K is fair, they take it.

Get your own agent.

 

[lovesmurfs]

The house is empty and been on the market for 58 days..

Given this, I might offer $124K, so that they have room to counter if they want, and you'll come out at/around $134K.

Good luck!

 

[Soon2B4]

Just because they did not counter does not mean they were offended. They might not have known what to say without offending you!

Or they were not ready to split the difference.

Or they were not ready to do both of (1) come down a meaningful amount and (2) split the difference after that.

We dealt with another agent in the same office as the listing agent. Our agent at the time told us first that they had to pray about what to do since it was so far off from their listing price. Then when we did hear back, the seller told the agents that they were just so offended that they didn't even want to counter. The agents tried to reason with them, but they wouldn't budge. We just walked. The home wasn't worth what they wanted and they couldn't handle that. I guess a year of carrying an empty house made them see the error of their ways. (They had moved to FL and the house sat empty for about a year and a half.)

 

[bdcp]

It really depends on the market. Is the house priced properly or are you just going in trying to save money? I do get a kick out of everyone wanting the most when they sell, but not willing to offer the asking price when they buy. Another issue for me, is someone who says "I have to get x amount for my house because I owe x amount". Last time I checked, it's about the market, not about personal debt. Prices are market driven and supply and demand affect what people get. Will the offer take it way under the market value? Are the sellers desperate? All those affect what a house will sell for. We are in the 4th home we've bought and we sold the previous 3. I am amazed at what people will offer and how offended buyers can be.

 

[acomasdiaz]

We just sould our house about three months ago and are in the process of buying another house right now. Our realtor told us that houses seem to be selling about 5% below what the asking price is, at least in the area in which we were selling.

 

[arminnie]

Every area is different. There are no common rules. That again is why it is so necessary to have a buyer's agent who can give you specific advice as to where you are buying not a general rule.

Some sellers absolutely refuse to accept reality and list their homes for way too much. I've been one of those sellers and had an inexperienced realtor who accepted my listing even those it was ridiculous. Many of the good ones won't take a crazy listing, but some agents will.

Some sellers are desperate and need to sell it immediately so they really low ball the listing. Without a buyer's agent you don't really know if it is a high or low or average listing.

You really need a clue as to what is happening in that precise area. Even a few blocks away can make a difference.

As far as making an offer over price - well sometimes you need to. If it is priced so rock bottom that it really is a steal that may generate several offers. I had some friends who recently bought a house doing this. A house that had been listed for $400,000 for over a year was slashed to $300,000. They came in at $302,000 and beat the other offers by a hair. It was so worth the extra $2k to get that house that reasonably was worth more like $350,000.

 

[DVCBELLE]

My in-laws sold their house to move into a condo about 7 years ago...they immediately got an offer at 30,000 less than they had listed. DH and I thought he should have taken it. My FIL was so offended that he refused to entertain the idea. The man let them know the offer stood if they ever wanted to take it. One year later they decided to talk to him. He had moved on at that point. Two years later they sold the house for $20,000 less than the man had offered two years earlier.

Its stupid to get offended by an offer - it ended up costing my in-laws a lot of money to be offended by the offer!

 

[Belle2667]

We've been casually house hunting (for a second property) for several months. I always contact the listing agent. If I do the deal directly through them, they get to keep the full commission. Plus, each agent we've met (more than 30) have been very forth coming with the information regarding the seller's situation and letting us know if what we would consider offering would be in the ballpark or not. If not, we walk and as we are looking for a second property we have no push to buy something now and can afford to wait for the right house at the right price.

The benefits of a buyers agent (pulling comps, tax info, etc) can all be done on your own and really, who pays the buyers agent? The seller, so they work for the person paying them. Heck, our research has turned up info even the listing agent didn't know.

 

[NotUrsula]

...
We are trying to get into one of the two better school districts in our area, so maybe that's why? The schools really make the houses so much more money around here. For now, we're staying put, but we're going to start making some improvements to our house in case we decide to move. If now, we still should make the improvements.

This is against conventional real estate wisdom, but in this economy, how much is that school district really worth in hard cash? If the only reason you want to move there is for the schools, do the math and look at what you would pay over time for comparable-quality private school, plus your tax obligation.

In our case we realized that moving from our paid-for home in a bad district (but a GREAT neighborhood) would probably not be worth it. Private school will cost us approximately $100K for both kids to get all the way through. The taxes are about $2K, so the obligation would be about $128K. The good district would cost us around $4K in taxes each year, so the difference is approximately $72K that we would save by moving and being able to use public school. Upon consideration, we just couldn't see taking on nearly $300K in debt in order to save $72K.

 

[Kathi OD]

Personally, I don't understand the whole being offended thing on a business transaction. If someone offered what I considered to be a really low offer on my home, I would just think they were trying to get a good buy and counter with something higher. Being "offended" doesn't get your house sold and negotiating back and forth doesn't really take all that much effort, especially when your house isn't selling.

When we bought this house, we had looked at another home and offered about $60,000 less than they had it listed for. They turned us down flat. The house had been on the market for about 6 months, and this was before the market was in such bad shape. Two years later, they finally sold it for $100K less than their original asking price. Guess we were lucky they decided they didn't want to do business with us.

On the house we finally bought, we offered $30,000 less than the asking price. We went back and forth a bit and finally they made a counter that was $15K less and settlement within 30 days. We agreed to the 30 days, but went back to $25K less. What the previous owners really wanted was someone who could go to settlement quickly, and they jumped on that offer.

Offer low, you don't know what the sellers are thinking. You can always increase your offer if they don't like it. If they decide to not deal with you at all because of your low offer, you're probably better off.

 

[01spirit750]

Business is business and no place for personal feelings.

If the house is empty and has been on the market for 58 days, they should be happy with any offers since the house is definitely over priced.

My opinion is that $134 is too high. I would start at $124.

another horror story
I had a relative looking at a house back in the late 80's. The house was for sale by owner who was divorced and his new girlfriend didn't want anything to do with the house from his marriage. The price during the first walk (in the evening) thru was $315k. The next walk thru (on the weeked) the price had increased to $325k. When they approached the owner about making an offer, the price had increased to $349k. All this happened during the middle of winter during a series of terrible storms. No one was having open houses.

An agent was brought in to help the negotiations and my relative offered $265k. The seller countered with $325k and an appraisel for $399k.

Long story short- my relatives final offer was $287k and told the agent that if the seller didn't accept, do not call or try to contact him (my relative).

The seller accepted.

The older houses in the area now sell for $1.4m and they bull doze them to build mcmansions.

 

[DawnM]

No! Not rude at all.

We want to sell our house Spring of 2012. I have no idea what sort of low ball offers we will get. We will not be desperate to sell, so we will have a set point as to what we will accept.

Dawn

 

[luvmylittleboy2003]

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate all the great advice I will keep everyone in the loop on what happens on the several houses we are looking at. Keeping fingers crossed...cross country moving is bad enough, so having this as one less thing to worry about is great!

 

[ccgirl]

Realtor here. Sorry, I only read the first post. Typically, I advise clients that they can start with a bid of 10% under asking. I think the bid you are describing would be just fine. As for the realtor selling the house, they represent the seller and not you. However, I know many customers that have done this. I always tell them up front I represent the seller. If you go with that realtor, do not tell them anything you not want repeated to the seller. Not sure if they have them in your state but the realtor may be able to represent both parties. In that case, there would have to be written notice to both parties. Hope this helps.

 

[DisneyScraps]

In this economy there is no rude. They might be facing foreclosure and would take anything.

Nothing is selling where I live and people are desperate, I think any offer is good enough to look at.

Lisa

 

[J3nn78]

I never understood the concept of a "rude" offer. We just bought our first house last month. Our realtor advised us to offer 20% below asking price on our first offer. We finally settled around 13% below their asking price and got 2% back at closing from seller.

Remember, this is a buyers market.

 

[Pigeon]

I don't think etiquette is the issue. Your offer reflects what you are willing to pay for the house. If the owner doesn't agree, they decline or make a counter-offer. There's no "rude" about it one way or another.

There are times when people have put houses on the market for much more than the market value, just hoping someone will bite. That's not rude, either. Optimistic, maybe, but not rude.

 

[rbork]

HAH! On one of our transactions they offered us 89K lower than asking. Yes, we were initially offended but got over it and let the negotiating begin. We settled in the middle. They got the house and we got the h#ll out. All parties happy.

 

[here757]

rude?? r u trying to pay full price??
LOL this is the budget board

depends how bad the seller wants to get the home sold.. right now houses are not moving fast.
worse case they say no and u can make another offer

good luck