House listed at $415k (was $435k, dropped after ~26 days). Been sitting for 80 days total.
The situation:
∙ Estate sale with 4 heirs
∙ Seller’s agent is wife of one of the sons – has only sold ~6 houses in the last decade
∙ Built in 1970s, needs ~$15k of necessary work, probably $25-30k to fully update it how we want
∙ Comps in the neighborhood are closer to $400k
Our offer:
∙ $384k
∙ 1% seller credit
∙ 2.5% buyer agent commission
∙ “Best and final” – good for 21 days
First offer was $375k + 1% credit. They just restated $415k, didn’t counter.
We’re genuinely capped at $384k and willing to walk on day 21.
What are your thoughts?
Estate sale – 80 days on market. Did we lowball or play this smart?
byu/Cray_610 inRealEstate
Posted by Cray_610
16 Comments
Restating the 415 IS the counter. They’re not biting. How badly do you want the house?
Pull the contract after 5 days. They ain’t changing their minds. They all want 100k to walk away with
walk…there are always other houses…this is likely equivalent to 2007, you’d be buying at the absolute top of the market
The $30,000 difference in price you’re perseverating over probably equates to roughly 30-50 bucks a month in the mortgage payment. Is that worth losing the house over?
Estates are a fucking nightmare to deal with. It’s always a handful of heirs that have no idea what they are talking about and greedy over money they didn’t earn.
Your offer was $370, not $384.
The improvements you want to do are irrelevant to the seller.
The number of houses the agent has sold is irrelevant.
Relevant factors are 4 decision makers and the emerging Spring market.
They countered at $415.
I don’t want to be mean but what thoughts can anyone add here?
Does it matter? You aren’t willing to go above $384K. The sellers currently are not there yet. Maybe they will be in 21 more days or maybe they have other plans for the house if they can’t get what they want for it (have one of the heirs buy them out, let a family member rent it, donate to a college, who the hell knows).
But since you are at your cap, it will either go your way or it won’t.
pull the offer
Estate sales are motivated to sell however you have whole group of owners that have to agree who and are in no hurry to sell. It’s cheaper for them to just eat the holding costs to wait for a better offer. At the minimum they will wait until the 20th day to accept. If it’s really that overpriced then why wait 21 days? Just buy one of the other many comps for the same price. Can’t find one? Than maybe it was a lowball.
I recently sold a condo for $415k. The buyer originally came in with an offer of $390k. I had my agent send their agent a message reiterating 415k and if they sent another insulting offer, there will be no further response. They came back at 415k.
If you want the house, don’t piss off the seller. If your offer was your best, then you’ll need to look elsewhere.
Walk. It’s just gonna sit even longer and keep weathering away. This spring is going to bring a lot of listings
If the selling agent is that inexperienced, maybe there won’t be any other offers.
A house is worth what someone is willing to pay. Either you offer more, they come down or nothing happens. Maybe someone will come along and think the house is worth it, maybe not. The only thing you can do is wait, but in the mean time, keep looking for alternative houses. Eventually they will sell or lower their price. Keep an eye on it while looking at houses.
I think they’ve already walked away buddy. It’s funny how you think you somehow have the power here. Either meet them at their price or they told you to move on.
Why would you do a 21 day offer? All you did was give them something to wave around to other potential buyers.
I never do more than 48 hours. Sellers are welcome to come back to my agent later if they change their mind. But I’m not going to leave an offer open and in the table that long. There’s no benefit to me.
They did counter. They countered at asking. Ball is in your court if you want to change your offer or not.
Also why the 1% seller credit? I feel like that projects weakness, like you don’t really have enough cash to do the deal and need a credit to close. That’s going to scare off a lot of sellers in a first offer. Why not wait to negotiate credits in inspections?
Do you have an agent? I feel like they’re not giving you very good advice.
Your offer price was not out of the ballpark for 80 days on market. But I would have scared them a bit and made them think you might vanish if they didn’t act fast.
Nobody knows. I would guess they are not desperate and sticking with 415k.