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Why Home Sellers Accept Low Home Offers

Posted Monday, June 23, 2008

Some realtors will tell you it is a buyers market. Other times, realtors will rejoice that it is a sellers market. No matter what the season for real estate holds, one thing remains true, every buyer wants a lower price and every seller wants the highest price possible. It is possible to learn how to offer a low price on a home for the highest benefit for the buyer.

Currently, wise home sellers are not instantly rejecting offers that are coming in well below their asking price. With the number of homes on the market in their neighborhood combined with personal motivating factors to sell the home, many more offers are being entertained than in the past.

However, whenever you offer a lowball offer that is interpreted as insulting to a homeowner, you always risk offending the seller and utterly losing the transaction. How can you negotiate a low price without hurting the sellers feelings and still get a great deal? Information is key.

In order to make an aggressive offer, a smart home buyer will do his or her research. If you do your homework, you can make a savvy, lower offer that will make sense to both the buyer and the seller. In a market where the seller has the upper hand, a sellers personal motivating factors for selling, such as relocation for a job, divorce, foreclosure, combined with smart comparable data about the neighborhood can create the ideal situation for a buyer to make an offer on a home much lower than the asking price.

What are some of the risks for offering a sale price much too low without doing your research? After all, the worst they can say is no. However, if the buyer is serious about owning the property, a sale offer that is too aggressive can cause the seller to reject your offer and not deal with you. In addition, the seller might assume that the buyer is not serious about making a deal. However, with outside, unbiased data at your fingertips, the smart home buyer can make a strong argument for the price and see a higher rate of success.

Even if you believe the sale price is appropriate, there are other ways to lower the amount you put towards a home. Look for sellers who are strongly motivated to sell. For instance, job relocation or sellers who have already purchased and closed on another home. These home sellers will be more likely to entertain the idea of paying for closing costs or changing the close date for a lower price. Of course, if the home has been on the market for an extended period of time, the assumption is that the seller will be highly motivated to sell at a more flexible price. By negotiating these factors, you can see thousands drop from the bottom line of home buying.

Overall real estate conditions will be a large factor in the price you can get from your home purchase. However, it’s important to remember there are a number of other factors in addition to the market to help the home buyer to lower the price of their future home.