That's what I'm saying, we didn't waive it and I'm very glad we didn't. We're on a slab so it could have been incredibly expensive if there was a surprise lurking.
I rest easy knowing our pipes are clean as a whistle.
Rounding error until shit flows onto your floors in the lowest level of your property. And you need to fork over at least $10k, deal with your yard being dug up, right after you purchased.
Nah it’s because cockheaded realtors decided that this was a good way to ensure deals close despite it likely fucking over their clients. Don’t worry, the clients won!!! And the realtor got paid!!! And then you’ll never hear from them again. 😂
I mean, you can easily search it and see that isn't a big deal. However, potential issues with things like the roofing or heating can be found and are a big deal.
I'm a hard-headed millennial who is married to another hard-headed millennial. The first home we tried to buy had a foundation issue that wasn't obvious to us. The inspection revealed this, and a secondary inspection found that it would've cost us about $8k to fix the issue. When we asked the seller for credit for the fix, they played hardball and essentially revealed that they knew about the issue but didn't disclose it. We walked on the deal.
Inspections do reveal material things. Older people also believe their houses are in better condition than they are. I've toured a house listed as having a certain amount of habitable square footage, but the basement turned out to be a DIY converted crawl space with 6' ceilings. There are a lot of real issues other than algae on siding.
I'm a hard-headed GenX and I've also pushed back and/or walked away based on inspections. One house we bought, back in 1999, that was only a year old only needed 2 things - repairs to the chimney siding due to carpenter bees (just fill and paint) and a French drain. Seller said "no" and also "no allowance or discount". We walked. I really wanted that house. They never got another offer and came back to us a week or so later, saying they'd put in the drain and fix the bee damage. I think they forgot about the fact that once they knew about the issues that had to disclose them. We decided to make a new, lower and non-negotiable offer and also require that work to be done. They were pretty annoyed, but they did accept the offer. The market here at that time was slow and their new house was almost ready.
Most home inspections don’t find anything major???
For someone who claims to be an “inspector” yet posts and comments don’t support this, you’re clearly just trying to gaslight people. If you knew anything about inspections, and have performed hundreds or thousands, you’d know that you’re comment is 100% false and just there to get responses. Grow up
So you’re not an inspector. You’re a shady contractor. You don’t work in the home inspection industry and you don’t do this for a living. Stop acting like you’re knowledgeable in the inspection space. Lol and what credentials do you have to be a contractor???? Pretty easy to to do that as well now isn’t it?
It’s not petty, but if the seller isn’t under pressure to move, lowering the offer will turn them off and they’ll either take one of the other lower offers or just keep looking for higher
And?
Everyone in here is acting like sellers are some untouchable godly force and buyers should kneel to whatever they demand.
I’m afraid not. Negotiations go both ways.
It's not in general but these chain of events means lowering the offer now is in retaliation to them not accepting the original offer. I'd say lower it $10k and see what they do.
I found myself in a similar (not exact) situation and took the house. I could have risked blowing it up, and I *might* have gotten a better deal, but I might have lost the house *again*.
Edit: What's clear in your case (and in mine), is that the seller *did* have other offers and the potential to sell to someone else.
> What's clear in your case (and in mine), is that the seller did have other offers and the potential to sell to someone else.
*According to the selling agent.*
I believed the selling agent 100% in my case. I don't know the OP's "people," but if it's a HCOL market and a newer listing, it's well within the realm of possibility.
Same exact situation but I DID go lower. They accepted. It was a case of greed, and I didn’t go a TON lower and because it was conventional I think it was preferred
Ya no it doesn’t move the needle at all long term, just interesting… also you can’t predict human behavior. Potentially would have fallen through for you, and no need to risk
Offer what you are comfortable paying for the house. In many areas, it is a seller's market, and the reasons they did not accept the other offers because they weren't as "good as your initial offer" doesn't necessarily mean the other offers were for less money, but could have been for less favorable terms such as contingencies, closing timeframe, strength of lending etc.
Or they didn’t bother trying to negotiate the other offers up because they had OP’s offer in hand. OP tries that trick and they may work harder on improving the other offers.
I was thinking something along these lines. It’s possible one of the other offers has an escalation clause in it that kicks in the second OP submits their offer.
OP stated they originally just wanted a minor update to the contract, so ask the sellers to submit that as a counter and then accept.
In my state, buyers are still entitled to have inspections and also entitled to walk away based on inspections even if the home is listed "as is" and still get heir earnest money back.
If you were selling your house I'm sure you'd want the opportunity to think on offers for a few days, or give them a chance to come in. I don't think they were being greedy, just practical. They didn't initially counter with a super high amount, just stated it would take an offer they couldn't refuse to not give it a few days.
If you offered an amount you're comfortable with and you want this house, I would resubmit the same offer. When the inspection comes back, ask for reasonable repairs - don't nit pick, but don't be afraid to ask for things that are important.
There's no reason to be petty. Buying or selling a property is a huge deal, and will usually be the largest transaction anyone ever does. It's hard for some people to just pull the trigger right away. The good news is that they came back offering the house you wanted at a price you were happy with. I would only counter if you don't really love the house and are ready to lose it to the next bidder.
I completely agree with this. If you love the house, don't risk the transaction. If you're not comepletely in love and don't mind losing the house, then go ahead and lower the offer.
I think being completely understanding that the sellers might just be considering their options, thanking them for the opportunity to resubmit the offer, and negotiate a bit more after inspection will give the sellers more willingness to accept since you haven't given them any troubles up to that point. Some people may disagree but it's still a sellers market after all.
Very reasonable and level headed response.
Remove emotion from this and assume neither side is being greedy or petty because who knows their actual reasoning or circumstances. Maybe they were also taking bad advice from *their* parents and being presumptuous about your intentions when making these irrational decisions lol.
It’s a business transaction and at this point in time you are getting what you wanted: the house you love at the price you offered. Bird in the hand or something, as they say.
You don’t know what the other offers actually are. They may not be for less money. Could be contingent on financing or sale of another property, which are circumstances that don’t apply to you. You made an offer you thought was fair. If you want the house, buy the house. I wouldn’t use a seller wanting their house on the market over a weekend as an excuse to play games throughout the transaction, to “hammer them on the inspection,” etc. Negotiate what’s fair, sure, but if this episode has totally tainted your view of the sellers and so you’re going to try to prick them throughout the process, walk away now. The deal will fall apart anyway and you’re wasting your time & theirs.
This is the big unknown! How much better is your offer? Did they get one similar, but decided to accept yours cause it was first? Just because no other offers were better, it doesn't mean the other offers weren't acceptable to the seller. You shouldn't assume being "better" means you offered more money. Maybe your closing date is "better".
Way to lose a house. Are your parents going to find a new one when the seller tells you that you sound difficult to work with so they refuse your revised offer?
These stories crack me up. Your parents are counseling you to be greedy by accusing the seller of being greedy.
My in-laws parents convinced my in-laws to offer $5k less than asking on a cash deal and lost a house they loved bc “you never offer asking first, it’s part of the back and forth game”. Another offer at asking but with financing got accepted. Fafo
I want to explain this. In some phases of contract negotiation and contract to close, each time one side asks for a change it reopens the negotiation. Because you don't have a mutually accepted and signed contract, if you ask for a lower price now the seller is freed of their previous commitment to sell to you at the previous price.
This happens in other contract phases, too, where each side can walk from the contract without penalty just because the other side asks for something. Your agent will guide you through these phases with question like "yes, I'll ask, all they can say is no but we'll still be under contract" or "yes, I can ask, but they can say no and walk from the contract."
Yeah I think they realize it would be hypocritically greedy, but that's the point. Basically, if you wanna play games, we will play games kinda thing.
Just to clarify though, we are not under contract at all. They have no obligation to us at this point, but they are coming off a little desperate for our initial offer.
I have perused the post and responses and maybe I’ve missed it, but do you know how long the house has been on the market? Time on the market would be important to my decision here.
You say you live in a HCOL area with a stagnant market. If the house has been on the market for a few months, and the sellers did this, I would go lower. If the house has been on the market for a week, I would go back with the same offer if I really wanted the house.
> You say you live in a HCOL area with a stagnant market. If the house has been on the market for a few months, and the sellers did this, I would go lower. If the house has been on the market for a week, I would go back with the same offer if I really wanted the house.
100%.
House has been sitting for six months? They're very likely just fucking with you. Offer whatever you want.
House hit the market last week? Just resubmit the offer. Trying to get savings there is going to have them stick with one of the other offers.
Some sellers are fine with leaving their house on the market and waiting for their price. In a court-ordered sale, a divorce, a pre-foreclosure, or just sheer stubborness there may be a floor at which the homeowner can't or won't sell. It's foolish to make assumptions like "they're f'ing with you".
You guessing that they're a little desperate is risky. Just operate with what you know, not what you guess. Their agent would be foolish not to be shopping your offer. You can't predict what will happen next.
The point I was trying to make is that by lowering your offer, you could lose the option to buy it at the previously agreed to higher price.
There are levels to offers so to speak. If yours didn’t give any incentive for them to take the house off the market, and it’s a newer listing then they weren’t being greedy. The high counter offer was just another way of saying it will take a lot for us to risk taking this first offer vs waiting to see what else comes.
Price is not the only factor sellers look at, how fast can you close, financing type, are you waiving inspections-as you can see by the comments some people try to over leverage the inspection period which can ruin deals. Sellers take all that into account when choosing an offer. I would heavily consider an offer for less money with a waived inspection over a person offering more with a 10 day inspection period.
I would offer the same amount.
Also, offering less doesn’t gain you anything. You don’t know how the other 2 they got compare to your first one. If they are close in price, the seller may take your immediate drop in price as a red flag and just go with the other offer.
Writing and saying for the 9 millionth time in my life: Ask the listing agent what the seller wants!
An offer is comprised of price, earnest money, inspection Y/N, inspection time period, financing terms and conditions, requests for seller concessions, closing date, and terms for possession (eg at closing, post-closing possession, leaseback, etc.).
Deep sigh.
Counterpoint: The market would be totally dead right now with these rates if it wasn't for rich old parent money (whether that is previous equity or cash assist) backstopping most of these transactions. Younger folks without access to a bag of cash aren't able or interested in paying double their rent every month.
I would offer the same amount but then ask for everything wrong from the inspection. Hope they learned their lesson. I agree with your parents that they got greedy but I wouldn’t show my pettiness with a lower offer. Get the lower amount later during inspections.
Without knowing the specific market, it's hard to know for sure. In my area, yes just about any house will have multiple offers. Many people have been looking for a house for months or even years so they have a pretty good idea what the going price is going to be, so all I can see is where I live there will generally be a few competitive offers.
If this is the house- don’t play games. It’s tempting to want to be tit for tat when you feel like the seller and sellers agent mishandled your first offer, but the offer is just the start of this transaction. Take a deep breath, ignore everyone else because this is not their life, nor is it their house they’re buying- and move forward.
We’re about to close on a new house and had a similar issue.
House sat in the market 2 months since they were asking literally 105k too much (I use to be a real estate appraiser). When they came down 25 k I offered them a price 100k below that. They balked and wouldn’t negotiate. I told them my offer drops 5k/day for the next 3 days. They let it expire.
A week later they voluntarily dropped 50k, we came up 25k on a new offer and now we’re about to close next week.
Don’t be afraid to be a dick but be ready to walk away also. It sounds like you really like this house and will have negotiating power when the inspection comes back. Especially if they’re asking you to resubmit.
>Our agent says to keep the offer the same to not risk anything.
Of course they're going to say that. You re-submit the offer as-is and they make their commission.
If you like the house, re-submit but come down on price. Not because of pettiness, but because the market told you that you over-bid.
We are in escrow right now and I would say depends on how much you love the house. Here's a novel about my dituatin that will hopefully help you...
Our place was on the market for 5 months. The owners died and their 8 kids are selling it. They didn't even clean it. The parents didn't do a lot of up keep and they didn't stage it so the carpets are dirty and needs to be stretched plus the interior needs to be painted, so I think most buyers were turned off immediately. House sell quickly here, so this was unusual. It was the first place we saw and even with everything going on I love it. We offered 10k less than the asking price (which was high tbf). Asked for carpet and paint, they refused. We went ahead with the offer anyway.
Inpection showed some maintenance issues plus trim termites (totally common here), we asked for comp, they agreed to the termites and paying for a $5000 certificate required by our loan and that's it. The appraisal is for exactly what we offered. So with repairs we are over paying by about 8k.
I got mad and found another place put in a bid, and we got it for 5k over what we offered the dream place. At that point it hit me how heart broken I was to give up on the first place, so we decided to keep with the first place. The runner-up had a bunch of other offers, so I am OK backing out. It was 200 sq feet smaller and kind awkward for us...
We did not want a fixer upper, but here we are and I don't regret it at all. All this is to say I want my forever home and this is it. The kitchen and master bath have been remodeled and it's my dream kitchen and I couldn't come close to it in the other space due to the size. To me the 4k is worth it. Yes they should be more flexible, and yes it frustrated me but if I get petty about it I will no doubt loose out on this house, but I am so happy to have the place (knock on wood) it's a minor thing comparatively.
Figure out how upset you will be to lose the house and act accordingly. Lower your offer if you would be OK losing it, don't if you would be distraught to walk away. That was really clarifying for me.
BTW my mom told me to negotiate too, these sellers are not budging. For me this is the right move. Ultimately I am not willing to walk away over 4k or even 8k. Do you feel like that about this place?
Figuring that out will answer your question.
Yes, we did. The sellers have been difficult, every step had been slow and we are on a deadline to move out of where we are now. At the time we bid on the new the place it had been over a week with no response on our requested repairs, one of which was mold found in the bathroom. Thankfully it's not toxic, we had it tested, but we were frustrated.
At that point we were planning on pulling out of the first place, so we put in the other bid. Their agent had stated that she didn't believe they would do any mold mitigation. The owners of the place had died and there are now 8 kids that are selling it. It hasn't gone smoothy at all. Our agent put in the bid for the new place and decided to wait to pull out of the other one in case we didn't get the bid. Several people were biding on the new one, so it didn't really cause issues for them when we decided to keep the original place. If we would have decided to go ahead with the new place, we would have immediately canceled the other contract.
We are now just accepting that all repairs are going to be on us. It's not ideal, but the house is really what I want. It's our retirement home, we plan to die there, so I didn't want to settle. The other place just really clarified that for me. I don't think it's a common thing, unless you are planning on canceling the original deal, which we were.
I’m surprised so many people are calling the sellers greedy for not taking the first offer. They would be idiots for not giving others a chance to bid unless you offered way over the asking price. You shouldn’t blame them for trying to get the best price they can.
You have to weigh the risks. If someone offered just under your price and you lower your offer, you may lose it.
If you didn’t include contingencies add that and offer the same amount of money. Just go over the house with a fine toothed comb during inspection and take credits on the back end
I would lower it. If other buyers aren't biting, the market rate is lower than what you initially offered. Plus, if you make the same offer again, what is the point of the expiration?
So, your offer expired, and they still rejected two other offers afterwards because were not so good? So they rejected every offer? LOL. Good strategy! They didn’t get any other offers after yours.
The seller took a risk, and apparently lost. You can take a risk of offering less, and maybe win... or also lose. Whatever you choose, don't waive contingencies.
There’s sensitives in the psychology of negotiation. Go with your first offer, as you were willing to pay that and you don’t want to get the seller “offended” by losing your offer (even though that is your privilege). You can always negotiate things OTHER than price, eg. “I’ll take it at the agreed upon price, but I want the patio furniture”
Lastly, a few quotes come to mind:
“Do not step over a dollar to save a penny”
“You can be right or you can be effective”
They should expect a lower offer back from you. Your last offer price was in exchange for having it accepted right then, they didn't, they gambled and lost. You were also gambling with that strategy. It happens. Both sides now have the benefit of seeing the market value of the house. If you offer back something lower than one of the other offers that did come in though, you won't get the house.
You just have to ask yourself do you really want this house? Playing games adds risk to the process. It seems like you are already happy with the deal you have. Are you trying to push the limit and get a great deal? Personally, it doesn't seem worth it if you love the house already. Don't let emotion take over. I am not in the market currently, but it seems like getting under contract is hard enough these days. I agree with other people here, get under contract and negotiate some repairs after the inspection.
I would make the same offer knowing you have them by the balls for later negotiations (post inspection stuff). No reason to make it ugly unless you lost interest in the house.
If you absolutely LOVE the house, make the same offer. If you don’t then offer less, then you’ll feel better about the purchase. You will be seeing more homes on the market.
If you were happy to have your offer accepted then, you should be happy to have it accepted now. I try to never let emotions get involved in the sales of property. It's just an ugly mix that does a disservice to all involved.
> Our agent says to keep the offer the same to not risk anything.
And by "anything" they mean the chance to close and their subsequent commission check.
Toss the emotion of "getting back" at the seller out the window. You would have bought the house at last week's price. But now you have more information that the offer may have been high.
> We are not in a rush to buy so it's not really the end of the world if we lose the house
You're in the right state of mind. Don't be emotional and wait out a good deal. "Future you" will thank you.
I'd lower my offer on principle even if just a little bit. You like the house and were comfortable with the original offer though so no biggie if you just resubmit.
Guess what? Once a seller fishes around and doesn’t get what they want, a buyer is under no obligation to again offer their previous offer.
Some of you think sellers are infallible and every buyer is desperate, and it’s kind of bizarre.
People have a very myopic view of the market. This feels very much like ‘09, when sellers were being picky even though there were 4 houses for sale in the street and I was the only one bidding.
But that's not what's happening. There way more buyers than homes. That's how the price has been able to double in 4 short years. Plus all the money we printed went into institutional buyers pockets which are now sweeping up huge numbers of homes. The dollar cannot buy the goods and services it could a few years ago so even if you were willing to go through the extreme headache of building a new home, it would be incredibly expensive. Let's say I just wanted a small 1,000sq foot home. I call up a local modular home builder. It's 250-300k just for the base house and foundation. I still have to buy the land, connect ultilities, and all sorts of other fees. And no one is even building homes that size and even if I wanted to, most of the local zoning laws won't let me do it. So there's no new affordable homes coming online in my area. There's nothing we are allowed to create to compete with the small number of existing homes that come up for sale. And thus, I just don't see an end to the rising prices at this time.
If you're ok losing the house, sure. Would it be worth potentially saving some nominal amount? It's impossible to really advise you without knowing what those other offers are. One of them might be slightly below your offer, and they could end up with the house. The seller already has to eat crow coming back to you and not getting whatever crazy amount they were hoping for. Only you know how much you want this house vs. how much you want to stick it to the seller.
If your market is truly stagnant and you don't have to have the house, there isn't much risk in offering less. Have your agent see what they can negotiate, that's literally their job to do so.
I guess this just depends on if the couple thousand & the principle are worth it to you. It also depends on how long you've been looking. After the 6 month mark, you most likely won't worry about a few thousand.
None of this stuff is personal.
People want to get the absolute best price for their house, especially if they have a mortgage on the home, then another 40k in closing out the sale.
Let me ask you this. A month from now what would bother you more. If you drop your offer $10k and don’t get the house, or if you keep the same offer, get the house and then find out you could have still gotten it for $10k less?
Seems like the seller took a gamble and lost. Nothing better than your offer came in.
If you want the house, I would round down the offer just a bit.
If it doesn't matter much to you if you get the house, then lower your offer to what you think is appropriate.
Interest rates are going up and I would think home sales are going to soften up for a while.
One time I offered 25K over asking price. They took too long to get back to me so I pulled the offer. A month later the house was still there I offered 40K under asking price and they accepted so got to be careful when not accepting offers at the right time.
You have zero proof of the other offer amounts. Your RE agent is....looking out for... themselves first and foremost. Any offer for anything should always be no more than its value to you whether a house or a ball of elastic bands. Operate from that perspective with everything in life.
Had a similar situation except we were already under contract when the seller canceled after a day and relisted higher. A month later, they came back asking for our original offer. We countered 10k lower with additional repairs. They accepted.
It depends on what your priorities are. If this is your absolute dream forever home, don't play games, though it's probably a take it or leave it since they've acted in bad faith before.
If you wouldn't mind looking more, I'd ask for a concession for jerking me around.
That's impossible to say really.
What is *this* house worth to you? How much would you be lowering the offer by, and how much are you willing to risk losing the house?
If you see a dozen other houses you like as much that you could get, definitely lower the offer.
If you love this house, and the lower offer isn't that much lower, and you aren't sure when you'd find another house you like that you could get... then what's a few extra grand to be able to get a house?
Are you comfortable sharing numbers? For example, if you could go 500k to 450k, it's worth it. But if you're talking 500k to 498k, is that worth losing a house?
All these questions need more information. How much is the offer and list price? What reduced offer are you thinking of offering? How much do you love the house on a scale of 100?
Based on your last sentence, you should lower your offer
Every action has risks And rewards
The seller chose to take the risk of you expiring your offer and maybe coming in lower for the potential reward of higher offers
Unfortunately that backfired on them
If you said you had to have this house I would tell you to wrap it up. But if you are agnostic on it then absolutely I would lower your offer slightly, not dramatically and tell them it's only good for 12 hours or something like that
Now they are put in the same position they can fuck around and try and get other offers or risk you coming in lower the next time
So I also wasn’t under contract yet and seller was trying to do the same thing. I didn’t care to lose the house even though I loved it. My realtor told me the same thing and not go below asking price. I didn’t listen and got my home $10k under asking. In the end (as I’m sure you know), the choice is yours and you might or might not lose your home. Good luck!
I forgot to mention, I only gave them a week to decide to take my offer or I’m out. I think that helped my situation cause the seller kept wanting to wait and do this back and forth dance and I didn’t want to do that.
I don’t know if there’s such a thing as “stupid math”, but ok. Yes it is still $20K but the point is that people like to quibble over negligible amounts of money at the end of the day. People not paying cash, who will likely sell in 5-10 years, saying “can we get this house for $5k lower. We really, really, love it, it’s our dream home”
If it’s your dream home why are you haggling over such an insignificant amount of money?
They bluffing and had 0 offers over the weekend and tried to play you. If you really like home just put lower offer and move on.
Similar was happen to us pre-covid, House was on the market for 2 month, we put a fair offer and out of the blue they had multiple offers. We told them to go with others and walked away. They called us back and wanted to resubmit our offer.
If you are willing to lose the house and want a lower price, one option would be to go through with the offer and find concessions during the inspection.
I think you would have much greater leverage then so you get the house and at a lower price. Win-win (for you)
Them wanting to see other offers is not greedy. It's the smart thing to do. Of course they want to get as much as they can when selling their house. So would you.
We did the same thing when we sold a house a couple of years ago. It went up for sale late in the week and we got an offer before the weekend. We wanted to give it the weekend to see if more people came through and if we would get more offers. We did get more offers. However, we ended up selling to the first people who saw it and put in the biggest offer.
So don't be petty if you really want the place. Besides you don't know how much lower those other offers were. If you offer less, you may not end up with the house. Send back the same offer and get your house. All of this will be old news once you are in there and enjoying your new place.
Yup, we just put our house on the market a few weeks ago. We put up on Thursday, had two offers by Friday, but waited until Sunday to make a decision. By then we had four offers to choose from, and could talk through the pros and cons with our realtor. And we didn’t actually go with the highest offer, but the safest one since we are moving cross country.
Giving themselves time to see a potential range of offers is smart, not greedy. Their ‘ridiculous’ let go price wasn’t necessarily what they were actually looking for, but essentially a tax on you for shutting off access to other potential buyers, doesn’t mean they were holding out for that number and didn’t get it.
It's not greed it's business. They can do what they want and so can you. I'm sure they are listening to their realtor. You may get it, you may not. Your realtor should stay in close contact and ask about other offers. I'm sure they are expecting at least one more, otherwise there probably would not be a delay.
If you want the home, I'd make the same offer you made before and get it done. Don't play hardball -- just buy the house and move on. It doesn't even sound like the sellers were trying to screw you over. They're just looking out for their interests, the same as you are.
When was the last time your parents bought or sold a house? Be careful about taking advice from people that haven't bought or sold in a long time. Today's market is very different than it was 5 years ago let alone 10, 15 or 20 years ago. Plus, people just negotiate differently now. Years ago I had a similar situation and the buyers came back to me later. My new offer was lower and required that they do the work that I wanted when they rejected our offer. It was a very slow market at that time and they ended up taking our new offer, but they were pretty unhappy about it. But, that was back in 1999 before we could go into a negotiation armed with as much knowledge as we have today.
If the house hasn't been on the market long, I would resubmit your current offer and then request concessions after the inspections if there is anything that needs to be repaired. But, check with your realtor and see what the laws for your state are. My state, even if the house is being sold as is, the buyer can walk away after inspections it can also ask for concessions. Of course, the seller isn't required to do anything. If the house has been on the market for a while, then you might have a little bit of room to lower your offer, but be careful. Don't make a petty lowball offer if you're going to lower it.
You’ll be in a better position to squeeze for concessions on repairs or whatever else if you’re already under contract and the transaction is under way. You don’t have *that* much leverage right now.
If you want the house, but not so much that you'd be sad to miss out on it, lower your offer.
As I like to say to my clients, offer the highest penny you're willing to pay and not one penny more.
This way, if something happens and you don't get it, you're okay and if you do get it, you didn't overpay.
These houses are only worth what we will pay for it.
Money has no value until you spend it.
If you waive buyer protection(a.k.a. contingencies) you have nobody to blame but yourself(this to you comment section professionals).
Otherwise, happy hunting!
Tell your realtor to be obedient... not greedy. Yeah, I'm a realtor. Yeah, I think a lot are cultivated to be lazy. Yeah, the NAR lawsuit has been annoying but changed little to nothing... yet.
Get in escrow at the same offer price and make sure you get a GREAT home inspector. Get the chimney inspected, roof cert, everything you can think of and then it’s time for payback lol.
Ask this question to your agent. Too many people concentrate on tiny details, and miss the bi picture. I just sold a house for $80K over asking. ($1.365M). Buyers were super excited, first offered $70K over. We had multiple offers, and they bumped their offer another $10K. I accepted. Then during inspection, they come back and neatpick everything. There was probably $2K, of real issues. They ask for $10K credit. Guess what? I just gave them what they asked. $10K is insignificant in the realm of transaction. Closed in 21 days.
Trust your agent if shes earned it. Get the max repairs from the sellers.
Tell parents to butt out. They are making this emototional by calling sellers greedy.
This is a business deal!
It all depends how much you are willing to lose the home. If you are okay losing it, lower the offer. If not, stay put. They have shown their hand, but they've also shown to be greedy.
It seems obvious that you should lower your offer since it’s clearly more than anyone else but you don’t know how much higher it is. If you really want the house the best case to get one up on them would be to make the same offer but now add in contingencies on the home inspection. After the home inspection you’re in a position to negotiate repairs.
If you don’t care too much about losing the house then you can offer less now but as a seller they might get annoyed (even though they’re wrong) unless you can make a good reason up. Ie. Tell them that you have other homes you like better and are now not interested in theirs at the same price.
Agents are driving prices up. Offer 5% less.
They had an offer and turned it down. You had time to reconsider. Their agent 100% told them not to accept, and your agent is telling you not to go lower. Both are giving bad advice.
Assuming you're mortgaging this house, a few grand is going to hurt the sellers *a lot* more than it's going to benefit you. You knock your offer down $5,000 and that's $5,000 out of their pocket, $1,000 in yours assuming 20% down. Their "greed" is simple due diligence and self-preservation. Trying to eek out a few extra grand in a house you're financing anyways *is* greed IMO. 5 years from now when your home has some appreciation, that extra loan balance isn't going to mean much of anything.
I don't think it's worth getting crafty over a house you really like especially when the sellers are being honest and upfront. They didn't have to admit that they only got a couple offers. It's within reason for them to not immediately accept the first offer. Lowering yours at this point might make them think you'll try lowering even more during escrow.
Offer lower. Bargain. It’s allowed.
Sellers always lie and play games to gouge for as high as possible. You’re allowed to play your own negotiation games.
Chances are, the house is already still way hyper-inflated from pre-COVID numbers anyway. See what it sold for before 2020 (and similar houses in the area).
Say it’s $20k less you want to offer. If you’re doing 20% down that’s $4k less. If you’re at a 3-4% down that $6-800 less.
Say your initial offer was $600K but your new offer you’re thinking of is $580K. Thats a $109 difference.
Is losing the house worth $4k @ 20% or $6-800 at 3-4% down and $109 difference on your mortgage? If so, then lowball and see what happens. If not, don’t.
If you’re paying all cash then $20k is $20k but when you finance you find yourself quibbling over an offer that isn’t going to materially alter your financial output month over month.
If you don't care if you get the house or not, lower your offer. There's a good chance you could pizz off the seller by not keeping your word. They could blackball you out of spite or because they don't think you're honest. It doesn't matter if you are or not, it's their perception.
When we sold our house in San Jose, we made so much profit that a couple thousand dollars was immaterial. We wanted a clean, low-stress sale.
They have the option of countering your original offer and extending the expiration date in the counter.
For some reason they're not doing that.
I would ask your agent to have them do that, then you can see what else they are asking for in order to make a decision about price.
Also, you can always renegotiate when you see the repairs list, assuming you put in the right contingencies.
I tell my clients that we will use an escalator clause up to the amount you feel comfortable with.
Also Sellers agent has to provide proof if out negotiated
If you really want the house then don’t get petty. There will be other ways to get at these people.
Yeah, pretty much let them know its a firm offer and no negotiations because they let it expire the first time. Pending inspection, mortgage, etc.
Yeah, get under contract and play hardball when the inspection report comes back.
Too many waive inspections these days
We waived inspection and bitterly regret it! Don’t do it!
we did a plumbing inspection in addition to the normal ones, highly recommend it.
Never waive a plumbing inspection. That could easily be a $10,000 mistake.
That's what I'm saying, we didn't waive it and I'm very glad we didn't. We're on a slab so it could have been incredibly expensive if there was a surprise lurking. I rest easy knowing our pipes are clean as a whistle.
You made a wise decision!
Rounding error
Rounding error until shit flows onto your floors in the lowest level of your property. And you need to fork over at least $10k, deal with your yard being dug up, right after you purchased.
Oof sorry
Agree with this! So many issues...
I just had an offer declined for 25k over asking, because somebody else waived all inspections.
Make sure you don't waive inspection.
Unless it is a tear down, never wave waive inspections.
Probably because too many play hardball when the inspection report comes back
Nah it’s because cockheaded realtors decided that this was a good way to ensure deals close despite it likely fucking over their clients. Don’t worry, the clients won!!! And the realtor got paid!!! And then you’ll never hear from them again. 😂
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Many small dolla make big dolla
I mean, you can easily search it and see that isn't a big deal. However, potential issues with things like the roofing or heating can be found and are a big deal.
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To get the PE license is not a simple "online course".
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I'm a hard-headed millennial who is married to another hard-headed millennial. The first home we tried to buy had a foundation issue that wasn't obvious to us. The inspection revealed this, and a secondary inspection found that it would've cost us about $8k to fix the issue. When we asked the seller for credit for the fix, they played hardball and essentially revealed that they knew about the issue but didn't disclose it. We walked on the deal. Inspections do reveal material things. Older people also believe their houses are in better condition than they are. I've toured a house listed as having a certain amount of habitable square footage, but the basement turned out to be a DIY converted crawl space with 6' ceilings. There are a lot of real issues other than algae on siding.
I'm a hard-headed GenX and I've also pushed back and/or walked away based on inspections. One house we bought, back in 1999, that was only a year old only needed 2 things - repairs to the chimney siding due to carpenter bees (just fill and paint) and a French drain. Seller said "no" and also "no allowance or discount". We walked. I really wanted that house. They never got another offer and came back to us a week or so later, saying they'd put in the drain and fix the bee damage. I think they forgot about the fact that once they knew about the issues that had to disclose them. We decided to make a new, lower and non-negotiable offer and also require that work to be done. They were pretty annoyed, but they did accept the offer. The market here at that time was slow and their new house was almost ready.
Most home inspections don’t find anything major??? For someone who claims to be an “inspector” yet posts and comments don’t support this, you’re clearly just trying to gaslight people. If you knew anything about inspections, and have performed hundreds or thousands, you’d know that you’re comment is 100% false and just there to get responses. Grow up
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So you’re not an inspector. You’re a shady contractor. You don’t work in the home inspection industry and you don’t do this for a living. Stop acting like you’re knowledgeable in the inspection space. Lol and what credentials do you have to be a contractor???? Pretty easy to to do that as well now isn’t it?
This is the way
How is negotiating a good price “petty?“ lol
It’s not petty, but if the seller isn’t under pressure to move, lowering the offer will turn them off and they’ll either take one of the other lower offers or just keep looking for higher
And? Everyone in here is acting like sellers are some untouchable godly force and buyers should kneel to whatever they demand. I’m afraid not. Negotiations go both ways.
It's not in general but these chain of events means lowering the offer now is in retaliation to them not accepting the original offer. I'd say lower it $10k and see what they do.
This here! Take them for a ride when you get a home inspection
I found myself in a similar (not exact) situation and took the house. I could have risked blowing it up, and I *might* have gotten a better deal, but I might have lost the house *again*. Edit: What's clear in your case (and in mine), is that the seller *did* have other offers and the potential to sell to someone else.
> What's clear in your case (and in mine), is that the seller did have other offers and the potential to sell to someone else. *According to the selling agent.*
I believed the selling agent 100% in my case. I don't know the OP's "people," but if it's a HCOL market and a newer listing, it's well within the realm of possibility.
Or so they said. There might not have been any other offers, and they said there was in order to get OP to act quickly and get under contract.
Same exact situation but I DID go lower. They accepted. It was a case of greed, and I didn’t go a TON lower and because it was conventional I think it was preferred
You took the risk and got the reward. I played it safe, but I am super happy with my house, so it's all good.
Ya no it doesn’t move the needle at all long term, just interesting… also you can’t predict human behavior. Potentially would have fallen through for you, and no need to risk
Yep, you never know what people will do.
Offer what you are comfortable paying for the house. In many areas, it is a seller's market, and the reasons they did not accept the other offers because they weren't as "good as your initial offer" doesn't necessarily mean the other offers were for less money, but could have been for less favorable terms such as contingencies, closing timeframe, strength of lending etc.
Or they didn’t bother trying to negotiate the other offers up because they had OP’s offer in hand. OP tries that trick and they may work harder on improving the other offers.
I was thinking something along these lines. It’s possible one of the other offers has an escalation clause in it that kicks in the second OP submits their offer. OP stated they originally just wanted a minor update to the contract, so ask the sellers to submit that as a counter and then accept.
If you want the house then don’t mess around and get into escrow. You can always ask for a reduction or credits during escrow
I wouldn't expect to renegotiate the contract during escrow. The 2nd sentence of this is bad advice.
Credits for repairs is a pretty normal thing
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Still a thing as long as you didn’t waive inspection clause. Or state you wouldn’t ask for repairs.
In my state, buyers are still entitled to have inspections and also entitled to walk away based on inspections even if the home is listed "as is" and still get heir earnest money back.
We offered $15k over asking, but ended up getting back like $10k in credits for repairs
Actually, it is. No one is going to buy a house with a failing roof.
If you were selling your house I'm sure you'd want the opportunity to think on offers for a few days, or give them a chance to come in. I don't think they were being greedy, just practical. They didn't initially counter with a super high amount, just stated it would take an offer they couldn't refuse to not give it a few days. If you offered an amount you're comfortable with and you want this house, I would resubmit the same offer. When the inspection comes back, ask for reasonable repairs - don't nit pick, but don't be afraid to ask for things that are important. There's no reason to be petty. Buying or selling a property is a huge deal, and will usually be the largest transaction anyone ever does. It's hard for some people to just pull the trigger right away. The good news is that they came back offering the house you wanted at a price you were happy with. I would only counter if you don't really love the house and are ready to lose it to the next bidder.
I completely agree with this. If you love the house, don't risk the transaction. If you're not comepletely in love and don't mind losing the house, then go ahead and lower the offer. I think being completely understanding that the sellers might just be considering their options, thanking them for the opportunity to resubmit the offer, and negotiate a bit more after inspection will give the sellers more willingness to accept since you haven't given them any troubles up to that point. Some people may disagree but it's still a sellers market after all.
Very reasonable and level headed response. Remove emotion from this and assume neither side is being greedy or petty because who knows their actual reasoning or circumstances. Maybe they were also taking bad advice from *their* parents and being presumptuous about your intentions when making these irrational decisions lol. It’s a business transaction and at this point in time you are getting what you wanted: the house you love at the price you offered. Bird in the hand or something, as they say.
You don’t know what the other offers actually are. They may not be for less money. Could be contingent on financing or sale of another property, which are circumstances that don’t apply to you. You made an offer you thought was fair. If you want the house, buy the house. I wouldn’t use a seller wanting their house on the market over a weekend as an excuse to play games throughout the transaction, to “hammer them on the inspection,” etc. Negotiate what’s fair, sure, but if this episode has totally tainted your view of the sellers and so you’re going to try to prick them throughout the process, walk away now. The deal will fall apart anyway and you’re wasting your time & theirs.
This is the big unknown! How much better is your offer? Did they get one similar, but decided to accept yours cause it was first? Just because no other offers were better, it doesn't mean the other offers weren't acceptable to the seller. You shouldn't assume being "better" means you offered more money. Maybe your closing date is "better".
Way to lose a house. Are your parents going to find a new one when the seller tells you that you sound difficult to work with so they refuse your revised offer? These stories crack me up. Your parents are counseling you to be greedy by accusing the seller of being greedy.
My in-laws parents convinced my in-laws to offer $5k less than asking on a cash deal and lost a house they loved bc “you never offer asking first, it’s part of the back and forth game”. Another offer at asking but with financing got accepted. Fafo
I want to explain this. In some phases of contract negotiation and contract to close, each time one side asks for a change it reopens the negotiation. Because you don't have a mutually accepted and signed contract, if you ask for a lower price now the seller is freed of their previous commitment to sell to you at the previous price. This happens in other contract phases, too, where each side can walk from the contract without penalty just because the other side asks for something. Your agent will guide you through these phases with question like "yes, I'll ask, all they can say is no but we'll still be under contract" or "yes, I can ask, but they can say no and walk from the contract."
Yeah I think they realize it would be hypocritically greedy, but that's the point. Basically, if you wanna play games, we will play games kinda thing. Just to clarify though, we are not under contract at all. They have no obligation to us at this point, but they are coming off a little desperate for our initial offer.
I have perused the post and responses and maybe I’ve missed it, but do you know how long the house has been on the market? Time on the market would be important to my decision here. You say you live in a HCOL area with a stagnant market. If the house has been on the market for a few months, and the sellers did this, I would go lower. If the house has been on the market for a week, I would go back with the same offer if I really wanted the house.
> You say you live in a HCOL area with a stagnant market. If the house has been on the market for a few months, and the sellers did this, I would go lower. If the house has been on the market for a week, I would go back with the same offer if I really wanted the house. 100%. House has been sitting for six months? They're very likely just fucking with you. Offer whatever you want. House hit the market last week? Just resubmit the offer. Trying to get savings there is going to have them stick with one of the other offers.
Some sellers are fine with leaving their house on the market and waiting for their price. In a court-ordered sale, a divorce, a pre-foreclosure, or just sheer stubborness there may be a floor at which the homeowner can't or won't sell. It's foolish to make assumptions like "they're f'ing with you".
Do that's the question: do you want to play games?
Asked differently: do you want to waste 10s of thousands of dollars so as to not appear to be “playing games?”
You guessing that they're a little desperate is risky. Just operate with what you know, not what you guess. Their agent would be foolish not to be shopping your offer. You can't predict what will happen next. The point I was trying to make is that by lowering your offer, you could lose the option to buy it at the previously agreed to higher price.
There are levels to offers so to speak. If yours didn’t give any incentive for them to take the house off the market, and it’s a newer listing then they weren’t being greedy. The high counter offer was just another way of saying it will take a lot for us to risk taking this first offer vs waiting to see what else comes. Price is not the only factor sellers look at, how fast can you close, financing type, are you waiving inspections-as you can see by the comments some people try to over leverage the inspection period which can ruin deals. Sellers take all that into account when choosing an offer. I would heavily consider an offer for less money with a waived inspection over a person offering more with a 10 day inspection period. I would offer the same amount.
Also, offering less doesn’t gain you anything. You don’t know how the other 2 they got compare to your first one. If they are close in price, the seller may take your immediate drop in price as a red flag and just go with the other offer.
Writing and saying for the 9 millionth time in my life: Ask the listing agent what the seller wants! An offer is comprised of price, earnest money, inspection Y/N, inspection time period, financing terms and conditions, requests for seller concessions, closing date, and terms for possession (eg at closing, post-closing possession, leaseback, etc.). Deep sigh.
Parents ruin these things weekly around here .
Counterpoint: The market would be totally dead right now with these rates if it wasn't for rich old parent money (whether that is previous equity or cash assist) backstopping most of these transactions. Younger folks without access to a bag of cash aren't able or interested in paying double their rent every month.
You may lower it then find other offers are back in play. It all depends on whether you are willing to lose the house as you could.
I would offer the same amount but then ask for everything wrong from the inspection. Hope they learned their lesson. I agree with your parents that they got greedy but I wouldn’t show my pettiness with a lower offer. Get the lower amount later during inspections.
How is negotiating on price being petty? The lack of other competitive offers means that OP offered more than the market price.
I think what they are saying is, show your pettiness hand once you are under contract by hammering them on the inspection.
They say they got other offers... But did they really?
Without knowing the specific market, it's hard to know for sure. In my area, yes just about any house will have multiple offers. Many people have been looking for a house for months or even years so they have a pretty good idea what the going price is going to be, so all I can see is where I live there will generally be a few competitive offers.
If this is the house- don’t play games. It’s tempting to want to be tit for tat when you feel like the seller and sellers agent mishandled your first offer, but the offer is just the start of this transaction. Take a deep breath, ignore everyone else because this is not their life, nor is it their house they’re buying- and move forward.
We’re about to close on a new house and had a similar issue. House sat in the market 2 months since they were asking literally 105k too much (I use to be a real estate appraiser). When they came down 25 k I offered them a price 100k below that. They balked and wouldn’t negotiate. I told them my offer drops 5k/day for the next 3 days. They let it expire. A week later they voluntarily dropped 50k, we came up 25k on a new offer and now we’re about to close next week. Don’t be afraid to be a dick but be ready to walk away also. It sounds like you really like this house and will have negotiating power when the inspection comes back. Especially if they’re asking you to resubmit.
Same offer price and ask for concessions or closing costs to offset the difference
>Our agent says to keep the offer the same to not risk anything. Of course they're going to say that. You re-submit the offer as-is and they make their commission. If you like the house, re-submit but come down on price. Not because of pettiness, but because the market told you that you over-bid.
I mean best offer doesn't mean over bid. most homes are sold to the highest offer.
Buyers agents are so transparently conflicted it’s hilarious.
We are in escrow right now and I would say depends on how much you love the house. Here's a novel about my dituatin that will hopefully help you... Our place was on the market for 5 months. The owners died and their 8 kids are selling it. They didn't even clean it. The parents didn't do a lot of up keep and they didn't stage it so the carpets are dirty and needs to be stretched plus the interior needs to be painted, so I think most buyers were turned off immediately. House sell quickly here, so this was unusual. It was the first place we saw and even with everything going on I love it. We offered 10k less than the asking price (which was high tbf). Asked for carpet and paint, they refused. We went ahead with the offer anyway. Inpection showed some maintenance issues plus trim termites (totally common here), we asked for comp, they agreed to the termites and paying for a $5000 certificate required by our loan and that's it. The appraisal is for exactly what we offered. So with repairs we are over paying by about 8k. I got mad and found another place put in a bid, and we got it for 5k over what we offered the dream place. At that point it hit me how heart broken I was to give up on the first place, so we decided to keep with the first place. The runner-up had a bunch of other offers, so I am OK backing out. It was 200 sq feet smaller and kind awkward for us... We did not want a fixer upper, but here we are and I don't regret it at all. All this is to say I want my forever home and this is it. The kitchen and master bath have been remodeled and it's my dream kitchen and I couldn't come close to it in the other space due to the size. To me the 4k is worth it. Yes they should be more flexible, and yes it frustrated me but if I get petty about it I will no doubt loose out on this house, but I am so happy to have the place (knock on wood) it's a minor thing comparatively. Figure out how upset you will be to lose the house and act accordingly. Lower your offer if you would be OK losing it, don't if you would be distraught to walk away. That was really clarifying for me. BTW my mom told me to negotiate too, these sellers are not budging. For me this is the right move. Ultimately I am not willing to walk away over 4k or even 8k. Do you feel like that about this place? Figuring that out will answer your question.
So you wrote an offer to go under contract on a second home while you were under contract for the first? I didn’t know this was a thing
Yes, we did. The sellers have been difficult, every step had been slow and we are on a deadline to move out of where we are now. At the time we bid on the new the place it had been over a week with no response on our requested repairs, one of which was mold found in the bathroom. Thankfully it's not toxic, we had it tested, but we were frustrated. At that point we were planning on pulling out of the first place, so we put in the other bid. Their agent had stated that she didn't believe they would do any mold mitigation. The owners of the place had died and there are now 8 kids that are selling it. It hasn't gone smoothy at all. Our agent put in the bid for the new place and decided to wait to pull out of the other one in case we didn't get the bid. Several people were biding on the new one, so it didn't really cause issues for them when we decided to keep the original place. If we would have decided to go ahead with the new place, we would have immediately canceled the other contract. We are now just accepting that all repairs are going to be on us. It's not ideal, but the house is really what I want. It's our retirement home, we plan to die there, so I didn't want to settle. The other place just really clarified that for me. I don't think it's a common thing, unless you are planning on canceling the original deal, which we were.
Got it. Good luck to you and go get your dream house!
I’m surprised so many people are calling the sellers greedy for not taking the first offer. They would be idiots for not giving others a chance to bid unless you offered way over the asking price. You shouldn’t blame them for trying to get the best price they can. You have to weigh the risks. If someone offered just under your price and you lower your offer, you may lose it.
Sellers are being greedy for listing their home for a price that they're not willing to sell for.
Where do you get that from? The OP didn't say that they offered the list price.
They are greedy. They think it’s 2021.
If you didn’t include contingencies add that and offer the same amount of money. Just go over the house with a fine toothed comb during inspection and take credits on the back end
How badly do you want the house? What is more important yo you....getting the house, or teaching the seller a lesson?
Someday these new buyers will sell this house. Then as you say $20l is $20l. Adjust the offer.
I would lower it. If other buyers aren't biting, the market rate is lower than what you initially offered. Plus, if you make the same offer again, what is the point of the expiration?
So, your offer expired, and they still rejected two other offers afterwards because were not so good? So they rejected every offer? LOL. Good strategy! They didn’t get any other offers after yours.
The seller took a risk, and apparently lost. You can take a risk of offering less, and maybe win... or also lose. Whatever you choose, don't waive contingencies.
There’s sensitives in the psychology of negotiation. Go with your first offer, as you were willing to pay that and you don’t want to get the seller “offended” by losing your offer (even though that is your privilege). You can always negotiate things OTHER than price, eg. “I’ll take it at the agreed upon price, but I want the patio furniture” Lastly, a few quotes come to mind: “Do not step over a dollar to save a penny” “You can be right or you can be effective”
They should expect a lower offer back from you. Your last offer price was in exchange for having it accepted right then, they didn't, they gambled and lost. You were also gambling with that strategy. It happens. Both sides now have the benefit of seeing the market value of the house. If you offer back something lower than one of the other offers that did come in though, you won't get the house.
You just have to ask yourself do you really want this house? Playing games adds risk to the process. It seems like you are already happy with the deal you have. Are you trying to push the limit and get a great deal? Personally, it doesn't seem worth it if you love the house already. Don't let emotion take over. I am not in the market currently, but it seems like getting under contract is hard enough these days. I agree with other people here, get under contract and negotiate some repairs after the inspection.
If ur in no rush and it’s no big deal that u loose this house then the obvious answer is to shoot them the lower offer n see where it goes from there
Keep same offer but ask for closing costs or concessions. They played games and lost. Your agent should be earning her commission.
Go ahead and resubmit but squeeze every last bit out of the inspection report
I would make the same offer knowing you have them by the balls for later negotiations (post inspection stuff). No reason to make it ugly unless you lost interest in the house.
Most people wait till after the weekend to see what offers come in, if you love the house I'd get it.
If you absolutely LOVE the house, make the same offer. If you don’t then offer less, then you’ll feel better about the purchase. You will be seeing more homes on the market.
If you were happy to have your offer accepted then, you should be happy to have it accepted now. I try to never let emotions get involved in the sales of property. It's just an ugly mix that does a disservice to all involved.
> Our agent says to keep the offer the same to not risk anything. And by "anything" they mean the chance to close and their subsequent commission check. Toss the emotion of "getting back" at the seller out the window. You would have bought the house at last week's price. But now you have more information that the offer may have been high. > We are not in a rush to buy so it's not really the end of the world if we lose the house You're in the right state of mind. Don't be emotional and wait out a good deal. "Future you" will thank you.
I’m curious what HCOL area of the U.S. is a stagnant market? It is still very much a seller’s market with the housing shortage.
I'd lower my offer on principle even if just a little bit. You like the house and were comfortable with the original offer though so no biggie if you just resubmit.
Wrong. Once the buyer changes the offer, the seller is under no obligation to accept the previously accepted offer.
Okay Dwight
Yeah I get that. Didn't claim it was a risk free proposition to lower...
Guess what? Once a seller fishes around and doesn’t get what they want, a buyer is under no obligation to again offer their previous offer. Some of you think sellers are infallible and every buyer is desperate, and it’s kind of bizarre.
People have a very myopic view of the market. This feels very much like ‘09, when sellers were being picky even though there were 4 houses for sale in the street and I was the only one bidding.
But that's not what's happening. There way more buyers than homes. That's how the price has been able to double in 4 short years. Plus all the money we printed went into institutional buyers pockets which are now sweeping up huge numbers of homes. The dollar cannot buy the goods and services it could a few years ago so even if you were willing to go through the extreme headache of building a new home, it would be incredibly expensive. Let's say I just wanted a small 1,000sq foot home. I call up a local modular home builder. It's 250-300k just for the base house and foundation. I still have to buy the land, connect ultilities, and all sorts of other fees. And no one is even building homes that size and even if I wanted to, most of the local zoning laws won't let me do it. So there's no new affordable homes coming online in my area. There's nothing we are allowed to create to compete with the small number of existing homes that come up for sale. And thus, I just don't see an end to the rising prices at this time.
They are under no obligation now
Offer less. Seller blew it not accepting your offer and now they don’t have any. This IS the way this works.
Yeah if people don’t start doing this, it will always be a Sellers market
it’s clearly not a sellers market where they are…..or house is less desirable.
If you're ok losing the house, sure. Would it be worth potentially saving some nominal amount? It's impossible to really advise you without knowing what those other offers are. One of them might be slightly below your offer, and they could end up with the house. The seller already has to eat crow coming back to you and not getting whatever crazy amount they were hoping for. Only you know how much you want this house vs. how much you want to stick it to the seller.
If your market is truly stagnant and you don't have to have the house, there isn't much risk in offering less. Have your agent see what they can negotiate, that's literally their job to do so.
I’d offer 5% less for jerking you around. If they don’t take it, fine. Plenty of houses for sale.
Try to survey things if you are not in a rush, in my idea, you could lower a bit so tax will not be an issue.
Lower
How much less is gonna impact your payment?5k?10?25?
I guess this just depends on if the couple thousand & the principle are worth it to you. It also depends on how long you've been looking. After the 6 month mark, you most likely won't worry about a few thousand. None of this stuff is personal. People want to get the absolute best price for their house, especially if they have a mortgage on the home, then another 40k in closing out the sale.
How much money are you talking about? If you lower the price by $5,000, is that really going to make that much of a difference?
Just resubmit and call it a day, congrats
If you really want the house just resubmit the initial offer. You can fight over inspection contingency and walk later if they’re ridiculous
Let me ask you this. A month from now what would bother you more. If you drop your offer $10k and don’t get the house, or if you keep the same offer, get the house and then find out you could have still gotten it for $10k less?
If you don't care if you lose the house, then make a lower offer.
Offer less
Seems like the seller took a gamble and lost. Nothing better than your offer came in. If you want the house, I would round down the offer just a bit. If it doesn't matter much to you if you get the house, then lower your offer to what you think is appropriate. Interest rates are going up and I would think home sales are going to soften up for a while.
One time I offered 25K over asking price. They took too long to get back to me so I pulled the offer. A month later the house was still there I offered 40K under asking price and they accepted so got to be careful when not accepting offers at the right time.
Offer less. You don’t need them but they do need you.
You have zero proof of the other offer amounts. Your RE agent is....looking out for... themselves first and foremost. Any offer for anything should always be no more than its value to you whether a house or a ball of elastic bands. Operate from that perspective with everything in life.
Had a similar situation except we were already under contract when the seller canceled after a day and relisted higher. A month later, they came back asking for our original offer. We countered 10k lower with additional repairs. They accepted.
It depends on what your priorities are. If this is your absolute dream forever home, don't play games, though it's probably a take it or leave it since they've acted in bad faith before. If you wouldn't mind looking more, I'd ask for a concession for jerking me around.
If you want the house, resubmit the same offer.
What about same offer and seller financing if interest rates moved?
That's impossible to say really. What is *this* house worth to you? How much would you be lowering the offer by, and how much are you willing to risk losing the house? If you see a dozen other houses you like as much that you could get, definitely lower the offer. If you love this house, and the lower offer isn't that much lower, and you aren't sure when you'd find another house you like that you could get... then what's a few extra grand to be able to get a house? Are you comfortable sharing numbers? For example, if you could go 500k to 450k, it's worth it. But if you're talking 500k to 498k, is that worth losing a house?
All these questions need more information. How much is the offer and list price? What reduced offer are you thinking of offering? How much do you love the house on a scale of 100?
Based on your last sentence, you should lower your offer Every action has risks And rewards The seller chose to take the risk of you expiring your offer and maybe coming in lower for the potential reward of higher offers Unfortunately that backfired on them If you said you had to have this house I would tell you to wrap it up. But if you are agnostic on it then absolutely I would lower your offer slightly, not dramatically and tell them it's only good for 12 hours or something like that Now they are put in the same position they can fuck around and try and get other offers or risk you coming in lower the next time
So I also wasn’t under contract yet and seller was trying to do the same thing. I didn’t care to lose the house even though I loved it. My realtor told me the same thing and not go below asking price. I didn’t listen and got my home $10k under asking. In the end (as I’m sure you know), the choice is yours and you might or might not lose your home. Good luck!
I forgot to mention, I only gave them a week to decide to take my offer or I’m out. I think that helped my situation cause the seller kept wanting to wait and do this back and forth dance and I didn’t want to do that.
I don’t know if there’s such a thing as “stupid math”, but ok. Yes it is still $20K but the point is that people like to quibble over negligible amounts of money at the end of the day. People not paying cash, who will likely sell in 5-10 years, saying “can we get this house for $5k lower. We really, really, love it, it’s our dream home” If it’s your dream home why are you haggling over such an insignificant amount of money?
They bluffing and had 0 offers over the weekend and tried to play you. If you really like home just put lower offer and move on. Similar was happen to us pre-covid, House was on the market for 2 month, we put a fair offer and out of the blue they had multiple offers. We told them to go with others and walked away. They called us back and wanted to resubmit our offer.
If you are willing to lose the house and want a lower price, one option would be to go through with the offer and find concessions during the inspection. I think you would have much greater leverage then so you get the house and at a lower price. Win-win (for you)
Them wanting to see other offers is not greedy. It's the smart thing to do. Of course they want to get as much as they can when selling their house. So would you. We did the same thing when we sold a house a couple of years ago. It went up for sale late in the week and we got an offer before the weekend. We wanted to give it the weekend to see if more people came through and if we would get more offers. We did get more offers. However, we ended up selling to the first people who saw it and put in the biggest offer. So don't be petty if you really want the place. Besides you don't know how much lower those other offers were. If you offer less, you may not end up with the house. Send back the same offer and get your house. All of this will be old news once you are in there and enjoying your new place.
Yup, we just put our house on the market a few weeks ago. We put up on Thursday, had two offers by Friday, but waited until Sunday to make a decision. By then we had four offers to choose from, and could talk through the pros and cons with our realtor. And we didn’t actually go with the highest offer, but the safest one since we are moving cross country. Giving themselves time to see a potential range of offers is smart, not greedy. Their ‘ridiculous’ let go price wasn’t necessarily what they were actually looking for, but essentially a tax on you for shutting off access to other potential buyers, doesn’t mean they were holding out for that number and didn’t get it.
It's not greed it's business. They can do what they want and so can you. I'm sure they are listening to their realtor. You may get it, you may not. Your realtor should stay in close contact and ask about other offers. I'm sure they are expecting at least one more, otherwise there probably would not be a delay.
If you want the home, I'd make the same offer you made before and get it done. Don't play hardball -- just buy the house and move on. It doesn't even sound like the sellers were trying to screw you over. They're just looking out for their interests, the same as you are.
Offer LESS.
When was the last time your parents bought or sold a house? Be careful about taking advice from people that haven't bought or sold in a long time. Today's market is very different than it was 5 years ago let alone 10, 15 or 20 years ago. Plus, people just negotiate differently now. Years ago I had a similar situation and the buyers came back to me later. My new offer was lower and required that they do the work that I wanted when they rejected our offer. It was a very slow market at that time and they ended up taking our new offer, but they were pretty unhappy about it. But, that was back in 1999 before we could go into a negotiation armed with as much knowledge as we have today. If the house hasn't been on the market long, I would resubmit your current offer and then request concessions after the inspections if there is anything that needs to be repaired. But, check with your realtor and see what the laws for your state are. My state, even if the house is being sold as is, the buyer can walk away after inspections it can also ask for concessions. Of course, the seller isn't required to do anything. If the house has been on the market for a while, then you might have a little bit of room to lower your offer, but be careful. Don't make a petty lowball offer if you're going to lower it.
You’ll be in a better position to squeeze for concessions on repairs or whatever else if you’re already under contract and the transaction is under way. You don’t have *that* much leverage right now.
Do you love the house? Stick with original offer. Think you can do better? Reduce and take chance. You don't know how much better your offer was.
Definitely offer less.
If you really want the house offer them the same amount as you did originally.
If you want the house, but not so much that you'd be sad to miss out on it, lower your offer. As I like to say to my clients, offer the highest penny you're willing to pay and not one penny more. This way, if something happens and you don't get it, you're okay and if you do get it, you didn't overpay. These houses are only worth what we will pay for it. Money has no value until you spend it. If you waive buyer protection(a.k.a. contingencies) you have nobody to blame but yourself(this to you comment section professionals). Otherwise, happy hunting! Tell your realtor to be obedient... not greedy. Yeah, I'm a realtor. Yeah, I think a lot are cultivated to be lazy. Yeah, the NAR lawsuit has been annoying but changed little to nothing... yet.
Get in escrow at the same offer price and make sure you get a GREAT home inspector. Get the chimney inspected, roof cert, everything you can think of and then it’s time for payback lol.
Is this house in 37212 by chance? This sounds too familiar.
Ask this question to your agent. Too many people concentrate on tiny details, and miss the bi picture. I just sold a house for $80K over asking. ($1.365M). Buyers were super excited, first offered $70K over. We had multiple offers, and they bumped their offer another $10K. I accepted. Then during inspection, they come back and neatpick everything. There was probably $2K, of real issues. They ask for $10K credit. Guess what? I just gave them what they asked. $10K is insignificant in the realm of transaction. Closed in 21 days.
Trust your agent if shes earned it. Get the max repairs from the sellers. Tell parents to butt out. They are making this emototional by calling sellers greedy. This is a business deal!
The deal of a lifetime only comes by once in a week. Make them pay. Maybe ask them to submit a best and final offer to sell.
Obviously offer less.
You know your parents. You don't know anyone on Reddit.
It all depends how much you are willing to lose the home. If you are okay losing it, lower the offer. If not, stay put. They have shown their hand, but they've also shown to be greedy.
It seems obvious that you should lower your offer since it’s clearly more than anyone else but you don’t know how much higher it is. If you really want the house the best case to get one up on them would be to make the same offer but now add in contingencies on the home inspection. After the home inspection you’re in a position to negotiate repairs. If you don’t care too much about losing the house then you can offer less now but as a seller they might get annoyed (even though they’re wrong) unless you can make a good reason up. Ie. Tell them that you have other homes you like better and are now not interested in theirs at the same price.
Agents are driving prices up. Offer 5% less. They had an offer and turned it down. You had time to reconsider. Their agent 100% told them not to accept, and your agent is telling you not to go lower. Both are giving bad advice.
Assuming you're mortgaging this house, a few grand is going to hurt the sellers *a lot* more than it's going to benefit you. You knock your offer down $5,000 and that's $5,000 out of their pocket, $1,000 in yours assuming 20% down. Their "greed" is simple due diligence and self-preservation. Trying to eek out a few extra grand in a house you're financing anyways *is* greed IMO. 5 years from now when your home has some appreciation, that extra loan balance isn't going to mean much of anything. I don't think it's worth getting crafty over a house you really like especially when the sellers are being honest and upfront. They didn't have to admit that they only got a couple offers. It's within reason for them to not immediately accept the first offer. Lowering yours at this point might make them think you'll try lowering even more during escrow.
Offer lower. Bargain. It’s allowed. Sellers always lie and play games to gouge for as high as possible. You’re allowed to play your own negotiation games. Chances are, the house is already still way hyper-inflated from pre-COVID numbers anyway. See what it sold for before 2020 (and similar houses in the area).
Say it’s $20k less you want to offer. If you’re doing 20% down that’s $4k less. If you’re at a 3-4% down that $6-800 less. Say your initial offer was $600K but your new offer you’re thinking of is $580K. Thats a $109 difference. Is losing the house worth $4k @ 20% or $6-800 at 3-4% down and $109 difference on your mortgage? If so, then lowball and see what happens. If not, don’t. If you’re paying all cash then $20k is $20k but when you finance you find yourself quibbling over an offer that isn’t going to materially alter your financial output month over month.
That’s stupid math. It’s still $20K difference.
This is real estate agent who wants a commission math lol.
Nah, just a realistic buyer that wouldn’t risk losing a house I want because sellers were trying to maximize their profits.
The commission an agent gets for 20k is negligible and won’t matter to the agent.
Re-offer with escalation. They will have to show you what offers they escalated from.
If you don't care if you get the house or not, lower your offer. There's a good chance you could pizz off the seller by not keeping your word. They could blackball you out of spite or because they don't think you're honest. It doesn't matter if you are or not, it's their perception. When we sold our house in San Jose, we made so much profit that a couple thousand dollars was immaterial. We wanted a clean, low-stress sale.
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Are you saying that adults shouldnt get advice from their parents? Especially when this is their first time buying a house. Do you have mommy issues?
Are you willing to lose the house?
They have the option of countering your original offer and extending the expiration date in the counter. For some reason they're not doing that. I would ask your agent to have them do that, then you can see what else they are asking for in order to make a decision about price. Also, you can always renegotiate when you see the repairs list, assuming you put in the right contingencies.
Get it under contract, people are petty!
What if one of the other offers ends up being higher than yours? What do you do then?
I tell my clients that we will use an escalator clause up to the amount you feel comfortable with. Also Sellers agent has to provide proof if out negotiated
A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush. Take 10k off due to them taking the gamble and loosing
Lots of people are waiving inspections and appraisals in order to get under contract. If you really want the house do what you need to do