It happens. You take the time to prepare your home for sale, you think you do everything right and then you get the dreaded low ball offer. Before you panic, sit down and take a deep breath. I can tell you in my years in real estate, I have negotiated lowball offers into full price or close to full price offers. The initial reaction is to tell the buyer where they can stick their offer. This is the last thing you want to do. What you need to do is remove the emotion and work with your agent to put a negotiating strategy in place. My general rule of thumb is to keep the door open and don't insult the buyer. If you have priced your house right to begin with, chances are you can negotiate a favorable deal. When that lowball offer comes in you have two choicies: - Thank the buyer for their offer and tell them that at this time you are not willing to entertain offers that low but please feel free to try again.
- Acknowledge the buyers offer and make a small movement of $1500 or so to keep the negotiating moving.
In both cases, if your home is priced to sell, have your agent send some comps along to help defend the value of your home. Keep the negotiations non-adversarial and always negotiate in good faith. Many buyers will present that lowball offer to see what they can get away with. If the home is worth what your asking for many buyers will come back for a another attempt at making an offer or come up signifagantly on your counter offer. Be confident, but remove your emotion from the process. Does this always work? Absolutely not, but you will be surprised on how often it will. One great reason to work with an agent is that they are an objective party to the negotiations and can keep the negotiations on track and prevent buyers and sellers emotions from getting in the way. Remember, as stressful and emotional as you might be the buyer is probably feeling the same way. I always tell sellers that for a buyer to put in an offer on a house they usually have become emotionally involved in the home. For most buyers it is never strictly a business transaction. I have been working with sellers in the Northeast Massachusetts, Merrimack Valley area for over 8 years. Besides bringing a strong marketing plan to the table, I have honed my negotiating skills to help close more deals. Thinking of selling your Massachusetts home? Give me a call today at 978-360-0422 |