Listing Agent Retort: “I’ll Tell You Right After You Tell Me How High the Buyer is Willing to Go” You (almost) never hear a listing agent (representing a Seller) say to a Buyer’s agent at the outset of negotiations: “let’s cut to the chase; what’s the most your Buyer will pay for my client’s property?”...Read More
Tying Up Loose Ends & Open Offers Admittedly, there’s usually not much doubt. But if you want absolute, “case-closed” proof that a Buyer’s offer qualifies as a lowball, here it is: when the Seller rebuffs it*, they never even bother to withdraw it. Either the offered price is so preposterously low they know the Seller will never...Read More
Listing Agent Retort: “I’ll Tell You Right After You Tell Me How High the Buyer is Willing to Go” You (almost) never hear a listing agent (representing a Seller) say to a Buyer’s agent at the outset of negotiations: “let’s cut to the chase; what’s the most your Buyer will pay for my client’s property?”...Read More
Using a Lowball Offer . . . to Get One That Isn’t “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” –Paul Romer (repeated by Rahm Emanuel and many, many others) “A lowball offer is a terrible thing to waste.” –Ross Kaplan [Editor’s Note: a least in the Twin Cities, lowball offers on well-priced, well-marketed homes...Read More
“Death By a Thousand Cuts” (Or Raises) No home Seller, quite understandably, wants to leave money on the table. No Buyer wants to overpay. Which is why it can be so tempting to initially list for too much (Sellers) or offer too little (Buyers). Big mistake. That’s because what often happens next — and by “next,” I mean, “several...Read More
Knowing (Maybe) What the Buyer Can Afford: How Relevant for Sellers? As a listing agent (representing Sellers), one of the lamer Buyer pitches you occasionally hear is some variant of the following: “I know the house is listed at (and worth close to) $500k, but I can only afford $400k . . . so that’s...Read More