Our first open house yesterday, our first offer!

[kimisabella]

We had our first open house yesterday, I scrubbed the house like crazy, dh lit a fire in the fireplace, put on some music, and let the realtors take over from there. I was shocked to find out that there was alot of people who came through, and one couple even made an offer on the house. I actually know the husband of the couple that made the bid. We used to hang out the same circle when I was dating my ex-boyfriend. Nice guy, but notoriously cheap. Of course, his offer was laughable, and he told the realtor to "do right by him" as he was leaving. Helloooo, the realtor works for us, why would she do right by him???? My realtor told him that essentially he was one of the first people to see the house, and it's going on MLS today, so we wouldn't take such a large amount of money off the price of the house so soon. Our house needs nothing, and is priced right for the market. He told her they love the house and are so excited. I say, if he wants it so bad, he better come up with a much better offer. I'm just happy that there is interest in the house so soon. We'll see what happens with the cheapskate.

 

[golfgal]

That is exciting for you. A lot of people will low ball you just to test to see what you will take or not, I wouldn't worry about it too much. I am sure you will see a lot of traffic once it goes on the MLS.

 

[VanniGirl]

Congrats on the first offer - even laughable. A busy open house is a good thing!

 

[Disney Doll]

There are many people in the world who make ridiculously low offers on houses just to see what would happen,

You are correct...if your house is priced competitively for your marketplace, it will sell at a reasonable amount of money. No need to accept the first lowball offer that comes in.

I assume you have a "drop dead" amount...ie-the least amount of money you would accept for your home. Counter the lowball offer, and see where it goes.

When DH & I were house-hunting, we got into some amazing things, and DH is a realtor, so you'd think it would have gone pretty smoothly.

The first house we looked at was a cute colonial right on the town line. Nice street, cute house, but literally the houses across the street were in the big city next door to my town, so it was not the most desirable street in town, but a goood starter home. The house was on the market for $150K and our opening bid was $135K and we would have probably gone as high as $145K for the house...it did need some work. Well, the listing agent was all excited when DH called her with the offer, set up a meeting so that DH could present the offer to the owners. Well, DH got thrown out on his ear practically!!! Seems that the owners had the idea that they were going to get $150K or more for their house, the listing agent used DH to "send a messgae" about what their house was actually worth. The owner kept saying "If this house was in Greenwich, it would be worth $250K" and my DH kept saying "If this house was across the street in Bridgeport, it would be worth $99K". needless to say, we didn't buy that house, and found out later that it sold for $125K. Every once in a while, it is nice to watch karma bite someone else on the butt, if you KWIM?

The bottom line is we ended up with a terrific house that is perfect for us in a great section of our town where we will probalby live until we die or move into a retirement home, so it all works out. This house was priced a bit higher than we could comfortably afford, but it had been empty for a year (the owner had died and his nieces were dealing with it), they had already carried it through one winter and were looking at carrying it through another winter, they met us and thought we were a nice young couple, so they accepted our low-ish offer. We didn't offer low-ish to be insulting...it was truly all we could afford, but at that moment in time it worked for them and it worked for us.