Sometimes it is hard to let your client back away from a deal, but I recently ran into a situation where that was the most logical thing to do.

My client made an offer, got a counter, and made another counter.  Given the market we are in and the condition of the property he was trying to buy, his offer was reasonable.

The seller was not happy with the first offer, and I had to work hard with the other agent to get the first counter.

When we could not get a second counter from the seller, I was perfectly honest with my buyer who was trying to buy a property "as is" in the middle of remodeling.

As much as I wanted to see the deal close, I was much more concerned about my buyer ending up with a property that might be over priced and would certainly be hard to inspect because it was in the midst of construction.

So I did not push my buyer into making another counter.  I think he was ready to do it but felt that even his next counter might be ignored.

I ended up counseling the buyer to wait until the property was finished, view some additional properties, and then make an offer if he still wanted the property.

Based on the discounts that I am seeing, my buyer could end up with more house and less pain if he waits for the seller to "become fully aware" of current market conditions and to finish the remodeling. 

Offers are not easy to come by these days.  That is especially the case if you are looking for one from someone who already has their financing approved like my buyer.

We live in a great area, but we certainly have felt the real estate downturn in spite of there being lots of reasons to relocate here. 

In this case we were willing to let the seller have the last word for now.  Sometimes the person who speaks next has already lost the battle.

I recently wrote a post at Blogger on having the last word with blog comments.  There the situation is a lot easier to control with not nearly as much at stake.