You Received a Lowball Offer. Now What?

Kirk Simmon Real Estate Video Blog

If you're selling a home, you might receive a lowball offer. There is a right way and a wrong way to handle this kind of offer as a savvy home seller.

What do you do if you're selling a home and you receive a lowball offer?

There are a few things to keep in mind when this happens. The first is that you have an offer, which is better than no offer at all. Then, you want to evaluate the buyer's qualifications. Are they prepared financially to buy your home? We'll take a look at the financials and call a lender if we have to.

If they are qualified, the next step is to evaluate what price and what terms we're looking at. We're looking for a combination of the two that works best for you. From there, we want to try and determine what that buyer's motivation is for making that low offer. Sometimes people just come into town looking to score a deal or they don't know what's going on in the market.

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A lowball offer is better than no offer at all.

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We want to counter that offer right away; we always counter an offer. Why counter a lowball offer? Remember, it's better than no offer at all, so we start by figuring out where they are and where you are. Inventory is low, and if someone picked your home to make an offer on, it could really be an oasis for them, and they're just starting.

We always counter, though. Sometimes we counter a little off the listing price and sometimes we counter at full price. Then, we want to make sure that if you’re even going to work with this buyer, that we also negotiate the terms. Ultimately, you could lose a buyer if you don't just counter and move forward.

Always make a counter and don't let the buyer go. You can always at least buy some time to find out who you're dealing with in this buyer.

If you have more questions about handling offers or you have questions about Main Line Real Estate in general, you can always give me a call or send me an email. I'd be happy to help you!