Tips for Handling Lowball Offers on Your Home

In an economy where a lot of people are looking for a deal, homes are no exception. Here’s how to handle a lowball offer if you ever come across one.

All offers must be in writing to present them to a seller. Unfortunately, we often get buyers with unrealistic expectations who make lowball offers, but we’re still required to present it to our clients.

The first thing to know about lowball offers is that you should never take them personally. Buyers are always looking for a discount and submitting lowball offers is just part of that. Take the emotional aspect out of it and think of this as a business transaction. It can be difficult, but it will help you immensely throughout the process.

How do we respond to lowball offers? The first thing we’ll do is send back comparable sales and listings to support the list price. Another tactic is to ask the buyer’s broker to submit their own comparable sales and listings that justify why they’re making their offer. Typically, they can’t produce them.

We can also just counter back at the list price. If the buyer's still being unrealistic after some negotiations, this is what we’ll do. Finally, we can simply tell the buyer that the seller has no response to their offer after we’ve exhausted all other options.

Lowball offers happen, and they can happen a lot depending on the type of market we’re in at the time. If you have any questions for me about how to deal with these kinds of offers in the future, don’t hesitate to reach out and give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.