<p>Our house has been on the market for a bit over 2 months now. It is priced right, equal to many of the comparisons in the area. We do not have a mortgage on this home, and have since moved into a newly constructed townhouse (with a mortgage). Of course, our plan is to sell the one house to pay off the mortgage on the new one.</p>
<p>We received our very first offer a few days ago, and it is 35K less than the asking price! That’s quite low on a $225K house. We’ve gone back and forth over the last few days with the interested party, and the best they can come up with is $200K and they’ll pay for any necessary expenses related to the home inspection. We’ve gone down to $212K, with them paying any expenses related to inspection issues. Our agent doesn’t think they will pursue our house any further, but will let us know over the weekend. </p>
<p>I hate to lose them, but know they’re offer is too low. </p>
<p>Is there any other way for us to counter their low offer that would have little effect on our bottom line?</p>
<p>Unless you really need the money from the sale right away, I’d do my best to hold out and wait for much better offers. Part of negotiations regarding buying/selling big ticket items like houses is being able to play the “waiting game” and most importantly, being prepared to walk away from a mediocre/poor deal for you.</p>
<p>Dissenting view. If a house is on the market 60 days not only is it stale inventory but the market is telling you your price is too high. This offer may be the best you get.</p>
<p>If you have personally reviewed the comps in your area and there is no glaring reason why your home should not be competitive with those comps, then I would stand my ground. Of course the agent is going to twist your arm because she wants her commission, but why should you give your home away? These are bottom fishers who probably have gotten the information that you are already in a new home and are looking for a quick sale. Don’t bite. You may be surprised.</p>
<p>By the way, after a recent surge in home prices, the pace of consumption has slowed down. Inventory did not go up but there are less buyers because interest rate rose from 3% to almost 5% in some banks. September was a horrible month for my house on the market, very few lookers. But October is much better, my house is in contract for 2 weeks already.</p>
<p>I don’t know if you’ve overpriced or not. I will say that my neighbor has had his house on the market for close to 4 months. He had an offer with in the first month and did the same back and forth with the buyer. He also said the offer was just too low. They moved on. He’s now lowered his price, but no more bites.</p>
<p>We really do believe the house is priced appropriately. We are in Southwestern Pa., where homes average 87 days on the market. We priced it according to our agent’s recommendation and are not looking to make a killing–we simply want a reasonable price for a spacious, well-maintained home.</p>
<p>Regardless, the house certainly isn’t overpriced by $35K. What they are offering is simply too low. We’ve already come down to 212K, and they are still unwilling to budge. They are a young couple (they even wrote us a lengthy letter explaining their love for our house); I think they saw the house, liked it, but cannot afford it.</p>
<p>I’m concerned that as we approach the winter months, there will be less and less activity, and that scares me a bit. </p>
<p>Frankly, if you are that far apart, there is little you can do other than lowering the price. Did they ask for help on closing? That is the same as lowering the price.</p>
<p>Why are you panicking, if the average DOM is almost 90? They do have home sold in the winter.</p>
<p>You’ve already come down in price. I don’t know what you could do unless you want to sweeten the pot with covering their closing costs, but that means you are giving up even more of your price, really.</p>
<p>I think you’re stuck. The higher interest rates because of DC shenanigans really cooled off the housing market. Now that rates have dropped there might be a bit of renewed interest. Unless you’re really hard pressed for the sale I think I would sit this out.</p>
<p>How much will it cost you to own two houses, heat two houses, maintain two houses, and pay taxes and insurance on two houses (especially since one will not be occupied and the insurance will increase)? If you add in those figures, maybe selling now for less is worth it.</p>
<p>We owned a high end house in a small midwestern town. We put it the market at a very reasonable price. We got an insultingly low offer on it the first week it was on the market. We didn’t even negotiate, we just turned it down flat. The house sat on the market for a long time (not a big market in that town for an expensive house). </p>
<p>In the end, the same people who we had turned down came back eight months later with a perfectly reasonable offer, which we accepted. </p>
<p>There is such a thing as a real estate ■■■■■.</p>
<p>I don’t know where Iron Maiden lives, but in our area in recent years, 60 days on the market is nothing, particularly if the house is anything but a cookie cutter colonial, in which case you just have to wait for the right buyer to come along. Even back in the go go real estate years, that wasn’t an unusual length of time for a house to be on the market where we live. I distinctly remember how draining it was to keep our previous house perfectly clean and neat for several months–with two small kid–in case a prospective buyer stopped by. But it sold, and we never had to drop the price.</p>
<p>You asked for negotiating strategies… If it’s a young couple, see if the realtor can bring them back for another viewing with some older relative who might give them more confidence to up their offer. </p>
<p>We just sold our house in upstate NY, and also didn’t want to go into the winter season if at all possible. We had a looker in June whose first bid was almost insulting low, but we kept letting him see the place as often as he asked to. He wanted to bring over various family members for another opinion. </p>
<p>Each time he re-viewed the house, the offer came up by $5K. Our realtor asked his realtor, “does he have any more cousins?” Finally, the bid came close enough for us to negotiate, and we made the deal, allegedly at the top of his capability and the bottom of ours. </p>
<p>The final price was a shade lower than we wanted, but we preferred to move along than hold out for higher. No regrets. The carrying costs of any house can pull away from the profit if it sits tooo long. Crunch those numbers for what it costs you to carry it each month, especially the heat and taxes. That math can be an eye-opener, and take the sting out of choosing to settle for a lower price. </p>
<p>Or, ask your realtor to have another open house, to shake up this couple that there might be competition coming around the corner.</p>
<p>I think the days on market are very area specific as an indicator of price suitability. We sold a home back in the good market days and the realtor kept telling us we better lower the price, but we had acreage and had to wait for the right buyer, who told us he would have paid another $100k had it been listed at that. Neither we, nor our realtor paid enough attention to the increases in the feeder area housing market.</p>
<p>Be sure to objectively evaluate your home compared to the comps, is your paint neutral? Do you have a bathroom filled with rose colored tiles and fixtures like my neighbor? Green carpet? Things you love may not be desirable…is your kitchen updated compared to the comps. Go online and view the comps’ photos if you haven’t. It is tough to know when to settle, but you know your finances and we don’t.</p>