Here are five things to remember when you receive a lowball offer.
When someone submits a lowball offer on your for-sale home, it’s hard not to take it personally. After all, this is the property you’ve proudly maintained and called home for years. That said, you should never throw away lowball offers or respond harshly to them. It might not seem so at first, but that buyer could actually be the one you’ve been waiting for. Here are five tips for responding to a lowball offer:
1. Don’t be insulted. Emotion tends to drive most of our decisions; we use logic to justify them after the fact. Do your best to step back, take a deep breath, and give yourself the time needed to see things from a detached, rational perspective.
2. Respond gracefully. If you react defensively or combatively, it usually builds a wall where there could have been a bridge. Snapping back at the buyer’s lowball offer will drag them down into an emotional mindset too, making it harder to ultimately get what you want from them.
3. Write a strategic counteroffer. What do I mean by strategic? Your agent should be a skilled negotiator capable of tactfully probing the buyers’ motivations. Once they find out what’s most important to that buyer, they can help you structure a response that accommodates their angle while still championing your home’s value.
“Your agent should be a skilled negotiator capable of tactfully probing the buyers’ motivations.”
4. Expect a counteroffer to your counteroffer. Working through a lowball-offer situation can be a process that takes a couple of days. Finding the middle ground isn’t easy, so give it the time it needs.
5. Negotiate other terms. While you might be stalled on price, you can make headway elsewhere. Work out the settlement date, inspection contingencies, a rent-back period (if necessary)—heck, you can even bring your old pool table or zero-turn mower into the discussion. Get them what they want so you can get what you want.
As always, if you have questions about this or any other real estate topic, don’t hesitate to reach out to us by phone or email at 717.216.0860 or dave@davehooketeam.com. We’d love to help you; no question is too silly or complicated. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
