Hi! We've had our house on the market for about 2.5 months. We priced it at a very competitive amount so it would move quickly--about 5% below the comps. We're a good deal for our area.

Saturday (a holiday) we received a low ball offer from a couple who have seen the house 3 times. The odd thing is that we were expecting an offer from them two weeks ago, but they waited until the day after their agent went on vacation to make the offer.

We countered, but didn't come off of our price much. We wanted to send the message that while we are willing to negotiate, we feel are very competitively priced already. They allowed the time limit on the counter to expire without a response.

Was our counter strategy a mistake? We really can't come down from our asking price more than 1 or 2 percent. We hope they are just waiting for their agent to return to town because they aren't sure what to do (first time buyers), but we're a little worried we've scared them away. What do you guys think?

Hard to say... That low ball offer might have been the maximum they were approved for. On the other hand, every market has folks that write low ball offers all over town. Their hope is someone will bite.

But each market is unique...does your agent feel the home is priced right? What did S/he say about the offer??

We're FSBO, but based on the comps in our neighborhood and what is currently for sale (there's lots of data available) we're priced right.

I would agree with the low ball all over town idea, but we know (or were at least told by their agent) that this is THE house they want. We also know they are approved for the amount we're listed at.

Quick question.For comps, are you looking at "for sale price" or "sold" price? Also, ask for a preapproval letter from their lender with any offer.

Just an editorial comment here - Do you question the ethics of a buyer who looks at your house 3 times with an agent, then makes an offer when the agent is on vacation? They know you're a FSBO and trying to save the commission for yourself. Guess what, they're trying to save the commission for themselves.

Sometimes you have to let people like that stew in their own juices for a few days, maybe they'll look at the comps in the neighborhood and realize their offer was very low.

One other thing, people that are a pain in the butt at contract time are usually a pain in the butt all the way through the transaction.

FSBO - We have their approval letter...they can swing this property. We are priced 5% below the average cost per square foot of recently solds in our neighborhood, and we're right in the middle of the price range of houses currently on the market in our neighborhood.

Good points PA Roadkill...I guess I'm letting more of the story out as we go here. :)

We're FSBO, but we're still paying the commission to the buyer's agent. We knew we could market it ourselves, but want to reward an agent bringing us a buyer. And they didn't actually go behind their agent's back. She had someone filling in for her, but the sub has never even viewed the house and would have a tough time advising them.

We've met their agent, and she's awesome...very thorough and obviously knows the market. She sort of hinted to us that they were exhausting her, but it could have been part of a sell. :)

Anyway, we thought that she may have advised them that we were priced correctly, but they were swayed by some other factor like a relative telling them to low ball or an article online that says, "make your offer on a holiday" or something.

If that's the case, they may have found they should have listened to her.

Your last comment provides some wise insight--these people seem to have been a pain for everyone involved from the beginning.

Bottomline it's a buyers market period. If you don't have a pressing reason to sell you need to take it off the market.

1 to 2 percent off the asking price won't fly in this market.

The buyers agent represents the buyers not you the fsbo sellers.

Many FSBO's beleive I will offer a commission to a buyer's agent.

The truth is this tactic doesn't work either. Buyers lowball because you are SAVING the commission and they know it. Agents stay away except for a few as they are doing twice the work for half the commission.

I can go down the street and only do one side of the job and collect my 3 percent and the other agent collects their 3 percent. I won't have to deal with a fsbo who needs alot of training and questions that will bring up implied agency and disclosure issues. Commissions are NOT fixed these are just averages for my area.

When you look at SOLDS were these broker listed homes or FSBO's??

Example a home sold at 200k listed by a broker at 6 percent.So the commission was 12k total. If you were not paying a listing commission but just a buyer side the sold price for you would be 194k not the 200k for the same comparable comp.

The buyers would see it this way everyday of the week so you better get used to it.

Like I said sellers can justify all week long on what a buyer should pay. When the seller and buyer sign the contract on the agreed price that's where the market is.

What did you consider a lowball offer? 5 or 10 percent is reasonable. If it was 15 to 20 settling between 5 and 10 off sales price is reasonable.

Sadcox, ugh! They offered (through the substitute realtor, right?) low-ball, you countered, they let it lapse. Their realtor (or sub) should have provided them with comps BEFORE they offered so they understood what they were doing and also understood your counter.

Best of luck and please keep us posted.

Thanks for the input SR...

I think a lot of what you are saying is true--it makes sense that people would price in the fact that there isn't an agent on the seller's side all things being equal. Still, it's actually the buyer who is paying for the commission (it's priced in).

Given that, it doesn't make sense to me that a buyer would rather pay $200k for a property that has a seller's agent instead of $195k for an equal property without a seller's agent.

Now, $200k vs. $200k may be a different story, but that's not the situation. We're already priced low to sell fast.

I'm sure there's a psychological aspect as well...people want to feel like they "talked you down" without looking at the real bottom line. If that's true, and what you said about offering a commission to the buyer's agent being a tactic that doesn't work is also true, the only logical thing to do would be for us to raise our price and get rid of the commission.

Home Stager--I have a feeling their actual agent DID provide them the comps (as I said, she's very thorough), but for some reason they chose to ignore her advice. It seems strange to us that they waited for two weeks until she was on vacation to submit an offer.

Sadcox, I totally agree with you. The whole thing sounds strange and I think it may be a blessing in disguise that these buyers didn't pan out.

Do you have photos you can post or a link to your online listing? I'd be happy to take a look at it for you for staging suggestions if need be.

Right in the middle of the price range of the houses currently on the market does not make your house a good deal since 50% of the for sale comps are priced less.

The cost per square foot measurement does not factor in things like condition, location, improvements, age, etc which all play a huge factor in value.

It is possible you are overpriced and the buyers, having personally seen everything for sale, know the market better then you do and have made a reasonable offer. Your ability to go any lower then 1-2% off your list price has no bearing on the value of your property.

Give the buyer's agent a call when she gets back from vacation. Perhaps she can provide some insight into the situation.

Also, since you were going to pay her a commission anyway, why not see what she would charge to list the home?

You might be surprised at how much this "awesome agent" can help you.

Thanks for all the great input guys...it's good to get different perspectives on what is going on!

This doesn't tell anyone that you are priced properly. Cost per square foot can differentiate between homes due to size, features, condition, etc. It is one of the worst ways to try and value a property. Many larger homes are cheaper in cost per square foot than many smaller homes, so this is completely irrelevant to the value of a home.

Also, to be in the middle of the price range for homes that are currently listed on the market means absolutely nothing. Value is not determined by other currently listed homes on the market. It is mainly determined by the most recently sold comparable homes in the area (not cost/sqft either). You can try and justify your price all you want. It is not worth what a buyer won't pay for it.

In regards to your first statement above, by trying to sell your home FSBO you are decreasing a huge portion of buyers that may typically be interested in purchasing your home. Many buyers and their agents do not know about FSBOs that are for sale. This is because most buyers hire an agent to help with their home search and purchase. Most agents do not drive around neighborhoods looking for FSBO properties. Most of us mainly use our local MLS systems to search for properties that match our buyer's criteria. So the odds of these buyers coming across a FSBO are slim to none. Second, if an agent does happen to see a FSBO for sale, most of us do not want to be involved in that type of sale. It is very frustrating and time consuming to deal with a transaction when the other party has no representation. Bottom line, most of us avoid these sales.

In regards to your second statement above, if you were priced low to sell fast, you would have already sold the home. It would not be listed for sale still 2.5 months later. The national FSBO average sells their home for 16% less than a home listed and sold by a Realtor.

This is all the honest truth. Please think about these things for a moment and try to justify not hiring a professional to list and sell your home.

There is always the buyer that will pay X dollars for a property. Thats it, nothing more. Some sellers are difficult, buyers can be worse. I applaud you for at least countering the low offer, sometime a middle ground can be reached.

Your post and responces come off as a pretty well informed FSBO seller. It could be a case where the buyer is not motivated to buy.

Thanks for the input Agent007! We are listed on MLS. About 1/2 of our showings have come from there. Very good point about the time we've already been on the market.

I think what you are saying makes sense about agents not wanting to deal with unrepresented sellers. Beyond the potential frustration and time involved, I can imagine many agents don't want to even support the idea of someone doing it on their own.

Sorry if I'm coming across as trying to justify anything...just trying to give details I omitted in my original question.

"I can imagine many agents don't want to even support the idea of someone doing it on their own."

If it was so easy you wouldn't have brokers and agents exist today.

I won't go into a long story but needless to say statistics by neutral sources show properties represented by listing brokers sell for less hassle,in a faster amount of time,for more money.

On MLS how did you get listed? Let me guess flat fee put in MLS and all info says to contact owner right?

Good luck - Hope you sell it.

Not saying it's easy at all super realtor. In fact, the only reason I felt ok with selling this one on our own is that I sold a property previously with an agent that was much more complicated than this transaction and ended up doing most of the leg work (and consequently, learning) on my own. I FULLY appreciate how much work is involved! :P

I don't think that experience was indicative of how it usually goes--it was an isolated case. In fact, we're selling another property that's under contract, and we used an agent to sell it--it's going very smoothly.

Sorry...didn't mean for this to turn into a fsbo/agent discussion. I was basically looking for thoughts on our original counter offer. Based on the feedback, I think we did the right thing.

Have you reduced the price accordingly yet?

People low ball just to test the waters too and see how desperate you are to sell. If you are competitivly priced for your area then there shouldn't be a thing that keeps you from selling to someone.

I agree with Super Realtor, whatever you do they will try to push you 3% more down at least. However I would recommend to price the property 5% down not from the average price for the neighborhood, you better price it 5% down that comparable houses in your area like size, updates etc. I agree with Agent007, you may have 5 houses on the market in the area and all of them to be overpriced, so check out the sold properties and see how your house stays comparing with them. On the end, check out how many days on the market the active properties have been staying and what is the DOM for the sold one.

Look on what traffic you have on the listing and if the traffic after 3 months is slowing down ( which I think it is) and you do not have any other offers, then most probably the price is the only reason and put all of your effort to work this offer out instead to keep your property on the market and finally to sell it even for less price. Buyers determine the price and you do not receive offers on this price, it means that buyers do not see value in your property.

Thanks for all the responses guys. You won't believe it but...

We raised (yes, raised) our price 7% on Saturday, which put us in a different price range of buyers. Before we were at the upper end of a typical range. Now we're at the lower end of a different range. Computer searches were probably keeping us from showing up on some people's radar--we were priced too low.

Showed on Tuesday, second showing on Wednesday, received an offer today that's just above our previous asking price!

I really want to thank you guys for all of the responses. It definitely gave us some different angles to view our situation from.

The solution clicked for us when we stopped and noticed a couple of key things:
1) The other parties who'd been interested in the house before the low offer had difficulty getting financed. They realized we were a great deal, but we were a stretch for them.
2) As we're looking to buy as well, we realized that other people are doing the same thing we are doing--trying to find a house at the LOW end of their price range and not the high end if possible.

Take this for what it's worth, but it may work for you in some situations where you have properties that are priced right and still aren't selling...

Wow!!! First of all, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! I've never really heard of raising the price like that but I am thrilled it worked out for you! Please keep us posted all the way until that last paper is signed. Woo-hoo for you!!!!

Let us know when it closes.Offers are worthless until it's closed.

Closed on Friday!

Thanks again to everyone for your feedback!

Congrats and thanks for the update!