Is it worthwhile to put in a low offer?

[Anonymous]

Went to an open house this weekend in a vacation location and house is a bit bigger than we would need for a second home but neighborhood we want and would be great. House has been on market since November 2023 and overpriced. Went under contract in May then relisted again in June. We know realtor and she encouraged us to put in an offer as sellers need to move to a different state and house is too big as they are older and need out. We told realtor with rates being higher, we couldn’t afford the current price and wouldn’t want to insult. Realtor insists we put in an offer. Our offer would be so low that it would be at tax assesed price. Original Listing of $2.5, already down to 1.79 and we are thinking an offer of 1.1. We are better off not putting out our low offer right?

[Anonymous]

What's the harm? They may negotiate you up though.

[Anonymous]

We got our house on a low offer. Can't hurt.

[Anonymous]

That's ridiculously low. The potential harm here is creating a contentious relationship. If you're willing to go higher then they won't want to deal with you.

If you really won't pay more than $1.1M, then you can try. It almost certainly won't work though.

[Anonymous]

You’re offering 60% of asking; I would say don’t waste anyone’s time unless you can go higher

[Anonymous]

If it’s your real best offer, it’s fine.

I think if you’re way under list, you want to bring *your* strongest offer. Don’t underbid yourself and see if they negotiate up. You could make it best and final and communicate through your agent that you’re not trying yo play hardball, this is just your best offer.

[Anonymous]

Why not?

[Anonymous]

Make their agent earn their commission. The seller will just laugh it off

[Anonymous]

I am a full supporter of low offers but woof that’s almost comically low. Of course if you have comps that support it bring those.

[Anonymous]

We have made many low offers, of the sort you're suggesting. We never got any of them. At one, we put in the extremely low offer after it had been on a while and they had reduced the price. They said they wouldn't even bother to respond. (Which in itself was a response.) It ultimately sold for less than we offered, but they were so insulted they refused to come back to us.

I've also seen it where based on our low offer some sellers think of that as the floor, so are more inclined to take a better lower offer than ours. And it goes pretty quickly after that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have made many low offers, of the sort you're suggesting. We never got any of them. At one, we put in the extremely low offer after it had been on a while and they had reduced the price. They said they wouldn't even bother to respond. (Which in itself was a response.) It ultimately sold for less than we offered, but they were so insulted they refused to come back to us.

I've also seen it where based on our low offer some sellers think of that as the floor, so are more inclined to take a better lower offer than ours. And it goes pretty quickly after that.

Agreed on your second point.

I think most of the time the first low ball gets rejected and the second (if a little higher) gets accepted.

Obviously you could experiment with this with the first offer coming from a straw purchase LLC but it may be legally dubious and definitely couldn’t use the same agent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have made many low offers, of the sort you're suggesting. We never got any of them. At one, we put in the extremely low offer after it had been on a while and they had reduced the price. They said they wouldn't even bother to respond. (Which in itself was a response.) It ultimately sold for less than we offered, but they were so insulted they refused to come back to us.

I've also seen it where based on our low offer some sellers think of that as the floor, so are more inclined to take a better lower offer than ours. And it goes pretty quickly after that.

Advertise this as a service!

[Anonymous]

The tax assessed price is 1.1 but the listing was 2.5 then 1.8?

What are the comps and computer estimates? Previous sale price and year?

Offering the tax assessed price is always reasonable, but rarely acceptable.

[Anonymous]

You don't put in an offer like this.
Your agent tells their agent and their agent replies with whether they think they can convince the seller to meet you near the number. If yes, then you put in an offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't put in an offer like this.
Your agent tells their agent and their agent replies with whether they think they can convince the seller to meet you near the number. If yes, then you put in an offer.

Sure, of course. So the OP would still be offering their low bid, which I think was their question, whether a low figure was even worth it. It's just a matter of whether it makes it to official paperwork.