ATTN Homeowners..... Question for you....???
 

When you were in the begining stages of purchasing your home and you made your first offer on it, how low did you go? Did you lowball the seller? If so, how much did you lowball he/she by?

I'm just curious to hear what others have done.

I wouldnt say we "low-balled" but we did inform the Remax agent that were were ready to purchase that day.......................only 7,000 less

Offer around 10-15% less than asking price.

put down atleast 20% to defeat pmi

Depends on the Market, Comps on the house, and how long it has been on the Market.

In California and Arizona you have to go over asking price in the Median house range. Over 1.5 Million then you can negotiate lower.

:2 cents:

Yeah, there is not really any negotiating lower these days in Florida.

When I bought this spring, my relator advised me to not try to seriously lowball them. She said most people will see that as an insult, even if they don't consciously recognize they see it that way.

She left the final decision to me, and I offered $4k less than list.


I could have offered alot lower, but I was not in the mood to cock around. I wanted a house, and I wanted it then. I liked this one, and I did not want to look at a bunch of others. I wouldn't say I was in a desperate to move situation, but it was a sooner the better kind of deal.

If not, I might have tried the serious low ball.

It depends on the market as stated by others... Market dependance on if houses are hot in your market. Meaning more buyers than sellers. If this is the case then you might want to offer what they are asking.

If house sales are down in your area then you can probably drop 20k on your initial offer. We always start out lowball in our area just to see how desperate the homeowner is on selling. If he responds back with 300 less then I know he is pretty set on his price. If he responds back with 5k under then I know he wants to sell and usually my next offer wins.

The main thing is to have your financing or cash on hand to make a quick sell... If you can close it in 2 weeks that can sway the price in your favor.

Ussually as a start, knock off the "odd" portion of the price. Example being if the house is listed at 259,000.00 then 250,000.00 is the bid.

25k and the guy took it.

a good rule of thumb is the longer the house has been listed the lower you can offer

haha . . . actually, with this house I saw it, told the guy it was a great house, worth everything he wanted, but I could not afford it, and left.

An hour or so later I was called, and he lowered his price. I told him he did not need to do that, and I still could not afford it.

An hour later he called back and had lowered it again. I then said okay, and bought it.

My first house, I think I just said I would take it.

People don't haggle too much around here. If you don't want it, there are plenty of others that will.

I hear more of bidding wars going on between buyers than of people trying to lowball someone.

You bought a house for $25k?

shack in the woods

I read again, think she means she knocked 25k off the asking price

an offer is just that, an offer, the seller will counter your offer or just outright reject it. Either way they will respond to the offer. Then after you see their response, you can adjust your offer. But I would not make an offer if your not willing to pay very close to the selling price.
Also if the seller does go down, he may do so only if you pay allot of the closing costs that are usually paid by the seller. Or you can ask a lower price and offer to pay certain closing costs that he would be paying.
The main thing is not to insult the seller by asking way below market price, unless its been on the market and the seller is very motivated to sell.

my home is on the market now and I am going to reject any offer that is below my asking price, why , because I know I will get what I want and I am not in a hurry to sell.

offer what the house is worth to you, then wait to see what their response is.