When selling your Fort Lauderdale home, be prepared for low-ball offers. It comes with the territory. How a bad offer is handled could mean the difference in getting your home sold or letting it remain on the market. Many sellers get indignant and dismiss it altogether. That would be an incorrect response. A low-ball offer doesn't mean the buyers aren't serious. More likely, the buyer is fishing or testing the seller's motivation. A large portion of the sales in South Florida come from foreign buyers. Low offers are a common practice in some cultures and countries. I'm going to show home sellers a better strategy that they can actually use to their advantage.
Before I get to that, make sure you are confident in your estimate of your home's value. Low-ball offers can be a matter of perception and opinion. Some times a low-ball offer ends up being closer to the homes actually value than the asking price. If you used my 3 Steps to Get Top Dollar for Your Home you can be confident you have the right price.
Low-ball offers are better than no offers at all. I have seen many situations where dozens of potential buyers viewed a property, but none of them made offers because they felt the price was too high. If a buyer takes the time to put an offer in writing. They have become emotionally invested in the home. You have them on the hook.
Even if a deal doesn't come together, that offer can be used for leverage. The best way to deal with that low ball offers is to slow play them, and then make a modest concession. A typical offer will have a set date to respond, or the offer expires. It could be two days or perhaps even less than one day. Let's use an example of a home listed at $399,000 and the expected sales price is $385,000. The offer comes in at $340,000 and the buyers want an answer in 24 hours.
Since the expected sales price is $385,000 the sellers shouldn't accept $340,000. So forget about the buyers arbitrary time limit in the offer. I would recommend a counter offer of $395,000 but wait to present it for 48 hours. Two full days is more than most anxious buyers and hungry agent can stand. The agent will likely be calling before the 48 hours is up to see what the status is. The first rule in negotiating is the first party to talk loses, and they just lost.
When that call or email comes I prefer not to respond to it right away. I will let the counteroffer be the answer the following day. The buyer at this point will either go away and you haven't lost anything. Or they improve their offer. The faster their response to the counter offer, the more motivated they are. Regardless of what the number is. They may worry that another offer will come in on the home they want to buy. The seller should continue to run out the clock when responding to further counter offers. Until they get what they want.
A better offer may very well come in. This is the best scenario in today's market. A multiple offer situation always works in the sellers favor. That is why it is so important to keep that low-ball offer engaged as long as possible. The other potential buyers don't need to know the other offer stinks. They need to know there is another offer. Dismissing an offer completely is more about ego and could be a big mistake. Just take in stride and use it to your advantage. There's nothing to lose.
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Serving The Greater Fort Lauderdale area since 2006
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