https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sun, 24 May 2026 00:20:46 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-448663 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:01:16 +0000 tvnov79 448663@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>we are just in the process of buying a house and will hopefully close in 2 months (I'm about 3 weeks till my due date)</p> <p>We found the perfect little dream house to raise our new family in (1888 Victorian house) that seems to be in perfect move-in condition, 3 bedroom 1.5 bath. #1 public school system, walking distance to the center of town, close to the train system for me to get to work. I had my heart pretty set on it, except for the price.</p> <p>The owners had originally put the house up earlier this year for $100k more than what the asking price is now. They left that high price on the market for only 10 days and then took it down. 7 months later, put it back up on the market for $100k less. </p> <p>If you look around the neighborhood / town at what houses of this size were selling for, the sellers were WAY overpriced to begin with. So we offered $50k less than the current asking price, because we felt that they were still slightly overpriced in their asking compared to other houses that had the same price with slightly more space. </p> <p>We only went back and forth twice on negotiations, meeting at a good middle-ground spot that was both fair to us and the sellers (so we agreed on $25k less than the asking price).. it also helped that we were willing to put 50% cash down.. : /</p> <p>But we'll see.. if inspection goes well (fingers crossed), we will get our perfect little house :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-448419 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:29:25 +0000 heffalump 448419@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our realtor told us not to low ball, so we didn't. We ended up getting more off in the end because the inspection was awful so we were going to walk away from the house. </p> <p>I was pregnant when we bought the house, and it was a short sale so we knew it was already going to take awhile to buy it. We didn't have time to play games. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447874 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:09:25 +0000 StbHisMrs 447874@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes, and to me it was insulting. At this point I can't remember how much less it was, but I know it was more than $50,000. We wouldn't have been able to pay the mortgage off. I had it priced comparable and even less than some of the comps, this was in 2008 right when the market tanked though.</p> <p>*Edited<br /> We've low balled but only on bank owned or foreclosures, we never low balled a "real seller". What I hate about this market is the bank prices it way way way under market value, you make a full price offer and they come back asking for $50,000+ what the original list price was. Dh and I are renting until our market isn't saturated with these bank owned homes. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447612 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:05:01 +0000 Weagle 447612@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our house was a forclosure, grossly overpriced, and not getting much action. We offered $85k less than the asking. We haggled for so long and eventually ended up settling for about 10% less than the final asking price (which was a fair value). 90% of asking is always my target price and usually initial offer for home buying. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447596 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:59:30 +0000 Andrea 447596@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yup, we low balled on our house by 20%. They were asking for way too much anyway. We ended up meeting in the middle and the appraisal came back about the same. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447578 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:49:11 +0000 LazyLightning 447578@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We lowballed one by 30 grand. Our reasoning was that it'd been on the market for over a YEAR, and was not in that nice of a neighborhood, and the city had assessed it for FAR less than the asking price. (They had it listed for a good 40k more than it was assessed, and other houses around it were worth even less).</p> <p>The seller countered with 1k below his original asking price. We did not accept or bother to counter back. We bought a different house and that one stayed for sale for a loooong time after we bought ours. Not sure if they ever sold it, or just stopped trying to. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447426 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:36:43 +0000 Revel 447426@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@HLK208: That is a big chunk. Because you just put the house on the market, I would probably counter with what you mentioned and not go lower, unless you need to sell quickly. There's no reason to rush if you don't like the offer, and it's likely you'll get other offers. Ten days isn't a long time for a house to be listed. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447425 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:36:40 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 447425@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I've received and given low ball offers. We got our house for more than 100k less than asking price, but it was a delicate dance. We made sure they knew it was about us and not the house and we didn't ask for anything extra, knowing that we weren't in a strong position. They obviously turned us down for months before they came around and we made sure that they knew we were willing to do as much as we could to meet them as much in the middle as we could.</p> <p>When we got low-balled on our house, we tried not to take it personally. The guy who low balled us and asked for all our stuff (art. Kitchen stuff, baby stuff) was looked on much less favorably than the couple who were genuinely stretching to get their dream house! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447424 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:36:11 +0000 HLK208 447424@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Pink Champagne: LOL ah I'm sorry, that is so ridiculous!! I'm not even sure what is so awesome about the sounders anyway :)</p> <p>@spaniellove: &amp; @yoursilverlining: thanks ladies, we'll see how it goes! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447406 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:29:04 +0000 yoursilverlining 447406@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@HLK208: If the buyer didn't include any earnest money deposit I probably wouldn't respond at all. Doesn't sounds like she is serious at all. Good luck selling your house - I'm sure you'll get better offers!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447384 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:15:52 +0000 spaniellove 447384@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@HLK208: I think buyers have a tendency to assume it's their market so they might as well start out asking for everything! Especially since you just listed it, you don't have to take them seriously. If they really want it they'll come back! And they'll figure out what your level of urgency is. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447383 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:15:36 +0000 Pink Champagne 447383@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We received an offer that was $25,000 under asking, plus they wanted closing costs- and because the buyer was a player for the Seattle Sounders soccer team, he offered us an autographed jersey and two tickets to an upcoming game. Talk about insulting!!! Like he actually thought some stupid jersey would compensate for his crappy offer. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447379 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:13:38 +0000 HLK208 447379@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@littlek: I agree, we have there's low inventory where we are and we're in a prime location so there is no rush for us to sell the house. Actually, with her offer, we would have to PAY to sell her the house. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447368 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:09:57 +0000 CupQuakeWalk 447368@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@HLK208: good plan! Trust me, if they're serious, they'll take it or come back in between somewhere. Good luck:) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447365 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:07:06 +0000 HLK208 447365@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@spaniellove: that makes me feel better...hopefully after we reduce the price a but, we'll have better offers.</p> <p>@Revel: it's 15%...so it's a decent chunk.</p> <p>@TurtleDoves: haha :) you always make me laugh. We think we're going to go back with full listing price, we'll pay closing, all appliances included. Because really, this doesn't feel like a real solid offer. When ever we made offers, we always put down a good amount of earnest money...this lady didn't at all. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447354 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:00:25 +0000 littlek 447354@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@HLK208: I would just reject the offer. That's an insult. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447352 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:00:00 +0000 littlek 447352@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Nope, but the housing market is competitive here. I received a low rent offer on our townhouse and I didn't even look at it because I was offended. Most people try and accurately price their house based on the market so going low would be an insult. There are always exceptions though.... some people think there house is above what the market can bear.. I think you need to look at the comps in the area and make an informed decision. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447350 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:57:34 +0000 CupQuakeWalk 447350@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@HLK208: I'd respond with a big fat "hell no!" You've only been on the market 10 days. And 40k under is way too much...&amp; if you're going to do them that favor- the leeeeast they can do is cover closing costs.<br /> My dad is a real estate agent so when we bought---he throughly compared all homes in the area and all recent sales. we bought it at $29k less than the asking price because the owner had already moved, couldn't afford it and had the house on the market for 9 months. If that weren't the case, we wouldn't have low balled him as much as we did. We paid closing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447325 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:39:52 +0000 Rescuemom10 447325@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We bought our house for almost 39k less than what they were asking. Its what we were comfortable paying, the house was over our limit. We didnt put in an offer until our two realtors talked and ours told theirs it was too much for our budget. The sellers really wanted to sell and said if we put in the offer they would accept it. So we did, and we got it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447314 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:27:01 +0000 Revel 447314@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We offered about 10% less than asking on the house we recently purchased. Ultimately we ended up at about 5% off for the final purchase price. Our agent said we could offer whatever we wanted, but advised to consider carefully an offer that was more than 10% below asking, at the risk of offending the sellers. So the 40K isn't necessarily offensive to me, depending on your asking price.</p> <p>Was this offer a large percentage below asking?</p> <p>I can totally understand how you're feeling, and I can see how I would personally be offended at receiving a lowball offer on my home, but at the end of the day, you do want to sell, so I would just counter with something you think is reasonable. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447307 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:22:16 +0000 spaniellove 447307@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>When we were buying our house, I think we initially offered at least $60k lower than the asking price (probably more). That sounds like a lot, but it was only 12% and everyone involved in the sale admitted the buyer intentionally priced high. The seller was probably kind of stunned at first and refused, but we stuck it out and got the house for $48k under! There was nothing wrong with the house (it's beautiful, had tons of custom work and renovations despite being newer) and wasn't on the market very long. The seller was pretty attached to the house and in the end I think he was swayed by the fact that we were capable of maintaining the property the way he did.</p> <p>That said, when we sold our condo a few years ago we did get some offers we had to reject. One buyer wrongly assumed we were desperate to get out and would take any offer after putting in so much work (floors, sound system, all custom closets, bathroom reno) that none of the other units in the building had. It was risky and when you do it you don't know if you'll get a higher offer! But it was totally worth it...a few weeks into the listing I decided to drop the price slightly and we got better offers. It was kind of funny that everyone suddenly came back wanting in! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447285 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:05:26 +0000 immabeetoo 447285@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We ended up 17k below asking - which was around comp prices. If we weren't pressed for time we might've started lower. I agree with previous posters, it's a starting point. P </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447281 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:03:12 +0000 ladyfingers 447281@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We went $7500 under asking plus $5000 in closing costs. But our real estate agent was aware of our budget ($7500 the list price of the house) and that we needed closing costs, and she still showed us the house and then convinced us to put in the bid anyway even though it was the first day the house was listed. We got it, though. It was a flipped house they had paid very little money for so they were in a position to bargain. $40K under is just ridiculous though! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447275 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:57:10 +0000 dagret 447275@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We "low balled" on one of the houses we looked at - like 180 instead of the 210 they were asking for, and they passed, but we later found out that they sold the house...at 179. so they were just overpriced to begin with. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447111 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:50:41 +0000 MrsTiz 447111@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I have! Our house was in foreclosure, so we offered about 60k less than asking price haha! They countered at about 4k off, so we just worked up from our 60, and down from their 4 and met somewhere in the middle. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447106 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:48:46 +0000 SleepyMonkey 447106@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>we low balled on our current apartment, but that is because it was the homebuilder selling it, not an actual person. it was also one of 5 condos left in the building and they were desperate to get it sold because they had been paying the mortgage on it for 3 years already - the recession had really hit demand. we offered almost 20% lower than asking and we eventually ended up paying 15% lower. worked out really well! it is different if you are buying from a person....emotions get involved. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447064 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:35:50 +0000 everbee 447064@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>we low balled..like 100K from asking. but 1. this is a manhattan apt, 2. the apt was a dump and everything needed to be fixed and we wouldn't have been able to afford it at the asking price, 3. this was in 2010 when the economy/housing was still low. they ended up rejecting because they said they had a more qualified buyer (note they didn't say the offer was better). but a few months later, when we were in the middle of writing up the contract for another place, they called back because the other one fell through. my broker negotiated another 30K less. so we got it for 130K less than asking. then did 90K of renovations. my suggestion is that it doesn't hurt to low ball. when we sold our previous place, we were low balled too and we just countered. don't take it personally. everyone wants the best deal they can get. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447048 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:26:42 +0000 yoursilverlining 447048@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think it’s insulting to offer more than 30% off from the asking price (unless you are in some super depressed real estate market). Most people don’t willy nilly pick a home price out of the air so yes, it’s insulting when someone wastes your time and energy with some bs offer that isn’t even in the scope of reality. If someone offers like 50% off of what you are asking, I don’t think that shows they are a decent negotiator and I wouldn’t even respond to that offer because I wouldn’t think they were serious at all. </p> <p>We have lowballed on property, offered more than the asking price, and offered the exact asking price. It’s a game, but a lot of info is easily available online so it’s not too difficult to determine what a reasonable offer should be. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447042 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:24:14 +0000 Smurfette 447042@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>That is a lot less. </p> <p>We offered $25K less then asking on a house, because there was some work that needed to be done. And based on the comps. We ended up not getting the house. I am still bummed about it. Once DH finished his masters we were going to put in another offer, and a week before we were going too, it went under contract. It ended up selling for $1K over our limit and $11K over what we offered. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/have-you-ever-placed-a-low-ball-offer-on-a-house-or-have-you-received-them#post-447025 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:16:08 +0000 prettylizy 447025@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@HLK208: That's true, I could see being upset in that way. I guess because DH is such a good negotiator I just don't get that emotional, everyone is looking for the best deal they can get, gotta start somewhere! lol! </p>