PeacefulChaos Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Than the asking price, I mean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariannNOVA Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 My thoughts (as we are waiting for someone/anyone to make an offer on our house): if you like the house enough to make an offer on it, make your best offer. It's a starting point. DH and I were talking to an agent who was hosting an Open House yesterday at a property that we went to see and we LOVED it. We had a conversation with her about our home which is on the market. She asked how long it was on the market (51 days) AND if we had lots of showings (we do) AND if we had any offers (we don't). She asked the price we were listed at, and we talked about lowering the price (every agent we talk to says do not lower the price). This was what she told us (and I only think that this is the case if the buyer's agent is not very experienced or NOT very good at their job): "some people are afraid to make an offer b/c if their offer is going to be very low, they are concerned that they will offend the seller." :001_huh: To which I answered that the buyer's agent needed to have explained to them that he/she is there to be the middle-person, he/;she is not emotionally involved with the property and neither is the agent to whom he/she is going to present the offer. My agent told me last night on the phone that is a couple is going to make a low ball offer, she prefaces it to the seller with: You know that none of this is personal, and let's see this as a starting point. As a want-to-be seller, I would take any offer as proof that someone liked my house enough to make it their own, and dh and I would work as much as we could to find common ground. During the summer, when we had been on the market the first time for about three weeks, an agent (not experienced) called our agent and made an unbelievably lowball offer - and said she would not put it in writing until our agent told us that we would take it. We thought that she wasn't negotiating in good faith although we knew her buyers LOVED our house and had a drop dead price which was way under our asking price and they were offering their drop dead price. DH turned it down out of hand -- I told him that was a mistake -- I was right. We would take THAT offer today in a second. Make the offer.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSNative Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 It all depends on the area - even within the same town. Look at comps and try to figure out the market. We bought our home two years ago. We made several different offers and they all varied based on the neighborhood, home and asking price. Clear as mud? Basically, make an offer. The seller will counter and you can learn a lot more from that interaction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 So much just depends. I'd say 10% is a very good rule of thumb -- unless you have good reasons to offer less. Other things to take into account, did they just lower their price? How long has it been there? What are the sales comparisons (your realtor should have some)? Have there been any offers? Average length of time on the market in the area? In our area (still No.VA, but not as No. VA as Mariann), you can find sales comps to my house varying as much as $125,000. These are all well within a 5 mile radius, and all on land similar to mine. The major differences are in build and finish quality. My house is actually on the high end finish-wise (Better quality, not over-the-top lavish), but houses on the low end have HW in the foyer, carpet & vinyl everywhere else...and low,low-end everything (plastic light fixtures...plastic faucets). So...if you come to me offering $435k (the low-end of the size/lot comps) you are going to be countered at $520k, and I'd be asking my realtor how serious they were. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariannNOVA Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 So much just depends. I'd say 10% is a very good rule of thumb -- unless you have good reasons to offer less. Other things to take into account, did they just lower their price? How long has it been there? What are the sales comparisons (your realtor should have some)? Have there been any offers? Average length of time on the market in the area? In our area (still No.VA, but not as No. VA as Mariann), you can find sales comps to my house varying as much as $125,000. These are all well within a 5 mile radius, and all on land similar to mine. The major differences are in build and finish quality. My house is actually on the high end finish-wise (Better quality, not over-the-top lavish), but houses on the low end have HW in the foyer, carpet & vinyl everywhere else...and low,low-end everything (plastic light fixtures...plastic faucets). So...if you come to me offering $435k (the low-end of the size/lot comps) you are going to be countered at $520k, and I'd be asking my realtor how serious they were. :lol: So true!!!! A builder up the road from us a few hundred feet has a parcel of land and he is building $1.5M homes -- and I have no doubt they will sell at some point. My dh likes the 10% rule of thumb. We also like to go to www.franklymls.com and see the history of what the house has sold for in the past. Most agents are good about telling you that people have put 'x' amount into improvements. And before writing an offer, our agent has always shown up here with comps, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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