Comments on: Lowball Offers Aren’t Insulting

By: Revisiting Lowball Offers | Real Central VA

Revisiting Lowball Offers | Real Central VA — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:53:12 +0000

[...] The HooK was kind enough to run a variation of my post from a couple weeks ago on lowball offers. [...]

By: J Veatch

J Veatch — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:54:25 +0000

Low Ball? Consider the buyers who in 2006 thought they were low balling at 20% under the asking price. Where are they now? The real problem is nothing has a price, not oil not gold, or any commodity. The big 3 auto makers and large banks are hemorrhaging and no one has invented the tunicate to stop the bleeding. Who’s going to buy a house that’s going to be worth 20% lees next year? More to the point who’s going to finance such a purchase?

By: Jim Duncan

Jim Duncan — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:36:13 +0000

Marcy –

The short answer is “it depends” – and that number is set by the market, what the buyer is willing and able to pay, what the sellers’ expectations are … some would consider 10%-20% down as lowball, and some would consider 25%-30% lowball.

Basically, my advice to buyers is to not be as concerned about offending the seller – focus on a reasonable offer, based on the market and the buyers’ intent.

My advice to sellers is to reasonably consider any and all offers.

By: Marcy

Marcy — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 23:31:36 +0000

As someone new to the market, would you mind educating me on what type of offer is considered ‘lowball’? Is 10% below asking price lowball, 20%, etc? What is considered a reasonable offer vs a lowball offer?
Thanks!

By: Recap of Yesterday’s Radio on Charlottesville-Right Now! | Real Central VA

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:02:13 +0000

[...] – Lowball offers [...]

By: Tobias Kaiser

Tobias Kaiser — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:52:34 +0000

To a large part, denial is in full swing in the SE Florida market too, and it makes me, a Realtor, furious. Funny: it happens in some pockets, but not in others directly adjacent and comparable. Also interesting: the overpriced listings, those on the market for 14 months with three different MLS numbers, always come from the same small group of listing agents.
Who’s dreaming here: the sellers who think there homes are just so much better, or the listing agents who don’t have the backbone to resist grossly overpriced listings?
No wonder markets are standing still, and buyers won’t act. They have plenty of good reason to wait.

By: Julie Emery

Julie Emery — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:11:50 +0000

I couldn’t resist responding to J Veatch. I wrote a blog post recently on all the “happy talk” from local managing brokers and how they’d have better served their agents if they’d been honest. It’s hard to help someone through a downturn if you never admit there is one! Never mind what you’ve done to your credibility!

By: J Veatch

J Veatch — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:07:12 +0000

Denial is not a river in Africa it is a plague that has overcome the real estate markets here in S.W. Florida. As terminal as this malady has been for sellers it has infected some so-called real estate expert here in a way that has made them very economical with the truth.
As a broker it shouldn’t matter if the market moves up or down as long as the assets move. But trying to energize the market with half truth happy talk is a discredit to the profession and calls into question the veracity the offending Realtors. A case in point is a local radio talk show that deals with the real estate market. On this show they speak constantly about how sales have increased. In truth it is not an increase in real arms length transactions that they are using as an indicator by rather the phenomenal number of bank foreclosures that are being recorded as title transfers. Lee county Florida is the foreclosure capital of the universe and the number of properties on the market is unprecedented. But as bad as the huge number of properties that are listed for sale may be if you were to include the number of people that want or need to sell their property but have given up the numbers would be staggering.

I suspect that this is not unique to S.W. Florida and that markets around the country suffer from the same malady. Some have estimated that the number of surplus homes in this country is between 10 and 20 million, depending how you define surplus. Building a floor in a market with such an imbalance will be the real challenge for Realtors and governments alike.

JW Veatch

By: Jim Duncan

Jim Duncan — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:21:43 +0000

Sean –

Thank you for stopping by. It’s a hard reality (and it’s likely to get harder for some sellers and builders) and I have yet to meet someone who is happy about where we are. We don’t set prices; we guide buyers and sellers to make intelligent decisions. Sometimes the best decision is, “don’t sell.”

By: Sean

Sean — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:56:36 +0000

Jim,

Thanks for sharing this post. I read it in it’s entirety and found it to be true – whether it was NYC or Main Street, USA. Our job in representing Sellers is to (help them) establish a price that will bring the “best offer obtainable from the best buyer available in the current market.” Ideally that will happen in a reasonable marketing time. If not, the price must be corrected.

As long time real estate trainer Joe Klock says, “No house in the history of time has ever sold for a penny more than it was worth to that given Buyer.” Sellers in todays market may not like that but it is true.

I guess the question for sellers needs to be “did you want a “Just Listed” sign in your yard or a “Just Sold” sign?”

Best wishes in 2009. Congrats on all the success with the blog. Keep up the great efforts.

By: Jim Duncan

Jim Duncan — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:10:17 +0000

You’re absolutely right, Julie.

Whatever a ready, willing and able buyer will pay = the market value … what one paid for the house, what a house cost to build, what one wants/needs to make in order to pay off debt are wholly irrelevant with regards to market value.

As I tell my clients – if we get an offer from a good buyer, we need to do whatever we can to work the offer to its fullest potential.

By: Julie Emery

Julie Emery — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:24:53 +0000

A lowball offer is an indication that in a scary market someone likes your home to stick their neck out and attempt to buy it.

As far as the buyers fear that what they’re buying will be worse less tomorrow, that seems not so much fear as reality. Whatever you buy will likely be worth less in the very short term. The question is what will it be worth when you’re likely to sell it?