Comments on: 5 Reasons Your Low Ball Offer is Rejected

By: Doug Willis

Doug Willis — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 03:34:32 +0000

You an call me in the office tomorrow if you would like to discuss this further…626-432-4615

By: 007

007 — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 23:28:57 +0000

Doug,

Thank you very much. My agent kept on saying that he was sure the offer had been presented to the seller based on his feeling and that there is nothing that could be done at this point. Our agent actually mentioned that listing agent and seller qualified our offer of insulting and much too low. The other important argumnet is that this week-end is the deadline for getting a conforming loan between $625K and $729,750 in CA… this should bring the prices down for the houses that are priced in the high 800′s to high 900′s – making the loans less affordable for the buyers. Shouldn’t this argument be presented to the seller directly by our agent? Should a buyer agent organize to meet and present an offer so this type of intagible can be openly discussed? Isn’t it better to always meet in person for a transaction close to $1M? Would an extraordinary buyer’s agent notify their buyers of a change in regulation like the loan limit? Would they advice them on true comps in the area versus the ones that will be used by the appraisers — i.e. within 1 mile and 200 sf and sold in last 6 mths? For instance a home may be close to houses sold in south pasadena where schools are better and sell for more…. or another house with same everything may have no usable land… etc.

Thanks,

By: Doug Willis

Doug Willis — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 13:00:47 +0000

I wouldn’t consider 4% a low ball offer either. The Purchase Agreement you signed (offer) can be acknowledged by the Seller indicating they are declining the offer. It should be on the bottom of page 8. I believe it is referenced “Rejection of offer”, you could ask to have this signed/initialed and returned.

Sometimes it is difficult to remove the emotional aspect from a real estate transaction. We always encourage our clients to make a counter offer. As far as I know, there is nothing that would prohiit you from contacting the seller directly, if you believe your offer was never presented. However I would recommend you consult with your agent first.

By: 007

007 — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 21:56:29 +0000

I have a question related to this subject. My wife and I submitted an offer on a house in Pasadena for 4% less then the listing price. We even wrote a letter explaining our rationale. The house has been on the market for 2+ months with no offer. It was even delisted and relisted with modifications to the house to make it more attractive. We submitted our offer through our agent and within a few minutes we get a call back saying that the seller has decided to not respond at all. At first,,apparently the listing agent did not want to present the offer to the seller and our agent insisted so he did…. apparently! That’s my question, we are questioning whether the offer was even presented to the seller cause we feel that 4% off the listing price on a $1M property is not much… certainly not a low ball offer cuase it’s the right market price according to the comps. The fact that the seller does not even try to counteroffer us – it seems fishy for so little difference. Is there anything we can do in this situation>? We are questioning whether the listing agent is trying to double-end the transaction. Can we contact the seller directly to make sure the offer was presented?

By: Agent 0

Agent 0 — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 18:22:46 +0000

This post has a lot of truth to it, although every situation is different. In some cases, offering much lower is a good thing, and in others, it is not. It can be hard to judge when you are unable to communicate directly with the seller. If you back up your low offer, a lot of times you can keep the seller from becoming too emotional and they will work with you.

In this market, if a seller does not take usually the first offer they get, they more than likely will not sell their house. Most sellers do not ever get an offer. In order for this to change, and the housing market to start raising again, houses need to sell. Therefore, if the seller can afford to take the hit from the lower offer, they usually will at least counter if they do not straight accept it.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 04:05:58 +0000

Buying a house right now is plain outright stupid.
Buy the house cash–>market drop, you lose thousands in months.
Take a mortgage–>you’ll get screwed when the interest rates
rise up.(especially for 1st house buyers who take 25-35yrs
loan). And you’ll pay too much when the houses price get down
you’ll be stuck with your mortgage.

As far as i’m concerned a house is a commodity and if the
price was fair the rent would have rose 200% altogether
with house prices.

By: Bob Ogborn

Bob Ogborn — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:25:25 +0000

I really know very little about real estate and the buying and selling of same, but I am trying to learn. I am retired and am low on the money tree so-to-speak. However my wife wanted to get a house again so we look and look and look….. Well in time she finds the house of her dreams etc. The asking price on this ‘short sale’ house was $139,900. We ask our realtor if 137,000 plus closing was fair. We were told it was and so we offered that price. It has now been six mounths and nothing. Not a word one way of the other. The house next door sold for $127,000 two months ago. Making my wonder if I bid too high? I am so sick and tired of this cat and mouse game I wish I had never started this thing and I just rented and enjoyed what life God has for me.

By: Christina B

Christina B — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:02:56 +0000

Amen to you! Even when I show my clients reasonable comps, they still insist on rolling the dice with a low offer and then become upset when the seller won’t give their house away. I certainly think its up to us, as agents, to educate the buyers in advance – down market doesn’t mean dumb sellers. No one is going to give their house away.

By: Betty Byrnes

Betty Byrnes — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:01:01 +0000

Very interesting and timely posting for me! I am in the process of writing a series of postings of tips for buyers about how to get their offers accepted. Several comments above related to over-priced listings. I am sure that is an issue in your area, but it is rarely the case here in the “rust belt”!

Like Doug suggests, one of the first tips I give has to do with looking at the comps – the asking price of the home in relationship to sold prices of similar homes in the neighborhood. I also advise comparing sold prices of foreclosures and non-foreclosures. The comps will tell you whether the house is over-priced or not. My complaint is about low-ball offers on “right-priced” homes!

Now, I know you are going to laugh me right out of the water when you read these prices… But an offer of $80,000 with the seller paying up to 6% of purchase price toward cc and pp on a well priced $94,500 foreclosure home in a $150,000 neighborhood is a low-ball offer! Does it even deserve a response? (Heavens, it’s no wonder we have to wait so long for responses from banks when they are dealing with hundreds of files and many of them have offers like this one!)

Thank you for your posting, Doug. It has given me some ideas of a couple of pointers I can use in my “putting it all together” posting.

By: Nina

Nina — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:27:41 +0000

I agree with the author of this post, people are trying to low ball to get a deal of a life time and they are being unrealistic. Those who take offense to what he has written are clearly those who want to low ball to find in their eyes “a victorious win in the down market” .