Lowball Offers
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A lowball offer is one that is far below a property's actual fair market
value. Lowballing a well-priced house breaks the first rule of a good
offer -- make a realistic offering price based upon the sale price of
comparable houses. |
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As a seller, what conclusions can you form about the lowballing buyers?
The buyers obviously haven't done their homework regarding comparable
home sales. They think that you don't know what your house is really
worth and are trying to exploit your ignorance. They are trying to steal
your house based upon a mistaken impression that you're desperate to
sell. None of these conclusions is at all favorable. |
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As a seller, you'd probably make one of the following responses to
buyers who lowball your well-priced house: Let the buyers know that
their offer is totally unacceptable by having your agent return it with
a message that you are not interested in selling your house to them, or
make a full-price counter offer. |
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Buyers who lowball a well-priced property listed by sellers who can wait
for a better offer destroy any chance of developing the mutual trust and
sense of fair play upon which cooperative negotiation is based.
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There's a huge difference between submitting an offer that's at the low
end of a house's fair market value and lowballing. If your offer is
based on actual sales of comparable houses, it won't insult the seller.
Such a low offer will, however, spark lively debate as both of you
attempt to defend your respective prices. Coming in on the low side of a
property's fair market value is fine as long as you have plenty of time
to negotiate and reason to believe that the seller is motivated.
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Ironically, some sellers provoke low offers by their unwise pricing.
These sellers insist on leaving room to negotiate in their price because
they "know" that buyers never pay full asking price. Don't play their
silly game unless you have time to squander. Make your initial offer at
the low end of the house's fair market value and see how the sellers
respond to it. If they refuse to accept the hard evidence of recent
comparable home sales in the neighborhood, don't waste valuable time
trying to educate them. |
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