So psychologically:
It doesn't even matter if the list price is already A Deal...
if what everyone really wants is TO Deal
.
.
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in order to feel like they got A Steal?
Yes Dune-Ahh that's been my experience. check that stats and see how many full price sales there's been. It's not that an agressively priced home won't sell, it's that our area is a lot of people buying for "investment". Buy low, sell high. There are so many distress sales right now that the selection for a buyer is phenomenol and there are properties out there that are selling with significant equity to the buyer. There are even properties that can be bought with cash flow or break even if they do the property management themselves.
Properties on the North side of 98 are a different buyer, of course. These are mostly people who are buying a home to live in there so the buyer's motivation is a little different and I think they are not "as" motivated by profit. The problem with that group is that I'm finding most of the people looking for a full time residence want to spend under $250K and there is a LOT of inventory that can be bought in that range.
There are soooo many short sale listings and when they become REO's, it's not gonna get any better. I hate this whole "short sale" thing. Have you seen that $6 million dollar home in Destin that the agent has listed for $10K? MLS #497144 The bid was up to $2.1 million when we last checked. The recorded mortgage is $4 million! NO WAY the lender would ever take $10K but people apparently believe they will. I can't tell you how many calls we've had on that home and I can't believe that ECAR hasn't pulled it.
IMHO, these kind of price misrepresentations are what's hurting our market. There is a ridiculous amount of properties being marketed as short sales and realtors are pricing anything they want on these short sales just to get offers. So when buyers search and they find that 3000 sq ft home listed for $229K, that's what they are asking to see. It's just a crazy time to be selling.
Hold on a minute. I don't recommend that anyone write contracts without contingencies. I never said that, and think you will see that if you re-read what I wrote. I even went so far as to state that I don't think it is worth the risk, considering the little gain for the HUGE risk. The question posed was, what can make an low-ball offer look better to sellers. My answer is that if you don't want to risk no contingencies, make your offer higher.
Thanks for clarifying SJ. Didn't mean to imply that you were recommending it. I know that you're a smart cookie ;-).
Initially we felt a little offended...thought about it and got back to them a week later and the result was better for them but okay for us. The realtor did a really good job of smoothing over the potential ego fall out! Emotions had to get put aside and on a practical note we realized it might be our ONLY offer...we were very motivated to sell so we could buy in SoWal (and we did! And thats a whole other real estate story).....
first . You're exactly right conch. Ego is such a deal breaker in many cases when a win/win deal could be negotiated. But when agents hang up on offers, refuse to take them etc., they hurting their client. There was a day when these hard ball strategies may have been effective with inexperienced agents but those days are gone. Listing agents should be thrilled to get any offer and should do everything they can to help their seller accomplish their goal. If their goal is unrealistic, they need to tell them that.
None of us know what will sell a home in this market but a mindset that a piece of real estate is anything "special" won't do it. Exposure, exposure, exposure of a bargain priced property and maybe you'll get an offer. There was a day when just being in the MLS would get exposure but with so many realtors struggling, it seems that I'm seeing more and more "inhouse" sales. We have even had a very "popular" realtor call us about a hot priced listing we had and tell us that they wouldn't show it unless we raised the commission. We split all commissions 50/50 and the total commission was 4% so it's not like we were trying to take the lion's share or ask them to show it for nothing. I couldn't believe it when my agent told me that! Who are some of these realtors working for ? That kinda stuff upsets me so much and is what gives people a bad taste about realtors.