by Christy Crouch
If you’ve ever had a seller turn down a good offer only to sit on the market… this article is for you…
Have you ever been working with a seller who just won’t budge? I mean, you know they CAN come down, they simply don’t WANT to come down.
Of course, that’s their right. However, when they’re dealing with the only offer they’ve had in three months, and nobody else is waiting in the wings, that might be the worst thing they can do in a down market.
So, I wanted to show you an email that I recently sent to a client who was seemingly not willing to budge on an offer that was less than $5,000 away from her price on a $350,000 home.
Just minutes after I hit the send button the seller called me. She wanted to thank me for bringing her attention to the points in the email and told me she wanted to accept the buyer’s offer.
My hope is that some of the content will be useful to you in your negotiations. Here is the exact email I sent to her.
“Hi (Seller),
I just got a call from (the buyer’s agent), and the buyers are coming back with a counter offer of $345,000. I know you said $349,950 is your bottom line, and I’m representing you, trying to get you the most money possible. At the same time I want to make sure I’m honest with you about my professional opinion. If you want to sell the home in a reasonable time frame, I would really consider accepting this offer, (Seller).
Here are my thoughts and concerns:
- How long will it take to find another buyer in this market who is financially qualified to buy, with their home already sold? Many buyers in your price range do have a home to sell because it’s generally a move up range.
- In the end even when we do find another buyer, are they going to be willing to pay more than this? These buyers have come up quite a bit and are very close. They respect the home, what you’ve done to it and are being reasonable…which seems foreign to most buyers in today’s market.
- If these buyers walk away because you won’t come down, you have to consider your monthly carrying costs and determine if you’ll actually be ahead if you sit on it for several more months and end up with the same offer later.
- Will it appraise? This is a concern for all parties. If it doesn’t appraise then the bank doesn’t lend the money and the sale becomes null and void. The only way to keep the sale is if the buyer pays the difference in cash, or the seller comes down in price to the appraised value. In recent years, appraisers have become very, very critical on property values due to the volume of foreclosures. They don’t want the banks coming back to them for over valuing the homes when they’re foreclosed on.
At $345,000 you would walk away with approximately ($345,000 minus commission and closing costs) after all expenses except for your loan payoff.
I know you want to get as much out of it as possible (Seller), and I do, too. The more you make the more I make as well. However, it’s just such a challenging market right now. While things are slowly shifting, it’s going to take some time for the market to recover to a point where it changes from a buyers market to a sellers market and prices begin to stabilize again. And since you hired me to sell the home I just want to be honest and tell you I think this is a fair offer. So, at at least I’ve expressed my thoughts and opinions in case we’re still on the market months from now.
In my experience the first offer is generally the best offer. Time and again I’ve seen sellers turn down offers and kick themselves months later wishing they would’ve accepted it.
Let me know your thoughts. You can email me back or call me at (number).”
Remember, the seller called back almost immediately and accepted the buyer’s offer.
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