Photo Courtesy of Creative Commons and jbelluch
One of our agents brought me an offer on a listing of mine. The price was very low and she was very apologetic but said the buyer just wouldn’t make a higher offer.
I presented it to my seller knowing that they wouldn’t be happy. I suggested they make a counter offer slightly less then the asking price,since the ability of the buyer to purchase and the terms of the agreement were good. We were $30,000 apart. The seller’s thought about it and made a counter offer $1,000 less than their asking price.
The buyers came up $5,000 from their initial offer which was better, but still too low for the sellers. Again the sellers reduced the price by an additional $2,000 in a counter offer. The buyer’s wouldn’t budge any further in their price. I suggested that their agent take them out to see other properties.
I figured they had only seen a few homes and possibly didn’t understand the value of this property. At the same time, I was talking to the seller about the values in the area, the fact that they had priced their house slightly higher than the market indicated. I suggested that they might reconsider what they felt was the right sale price for their home.
All of this took 10 days. Another week went by with continued showings but no new offers, even though several buyers looked at the property more then once. The buyers made a new offer increasing the sale price $7,000 and entering the price range I had discussed with the owners when the home was listed. I have presented this to the sellers and are waiting for their response. Stay tuned for the final episode, as the sellers make their next decision.
Patience in this market will eventually make a transaction work for everyone. Sellers and Buyers need to think about the other parties position in the most positive manner and work through the issues, slowly, steadily and persistently, until everyone’s a winner!
