The Offer Was Sooooo Low....But YUP...They Really Want It.....

Here's a scenario...the buyer who has been looking for six years but can't find anything he likes stumbles on to your website, visits your burg and scopes out a new listing.  After exhaustive return trips to property with hundreds of tradesmen, the buyer makes an offer with 3500 things he does not like about the place.  The offer is a quarter of the listing price which is a fair price for the property to begin with.  It is not from lack of resources to purchase that make the low ball offer...he has the money, the property is worth it and to get the place cheaper (buyer thinks) he spells everything under the sun that make it kryptonite to him to seller..to the point that prompts Joe Broker to pleasantly ask, slightly amused doing so, "So...if this, and this, and this  (scrolling down the list pointing with pen) is wrong with the property for your needs, why are we going to buy this one?"  Buyer stops up short, gets ten shades of red, and coughs a few times, looking at floor and then picks up steam responding "Oh don't get me wrong...I love the place..I think it is perfect for my needs..etc."  But he is doing the seller a favor to take it off his hands...and wants the seller to know what a horrible property he owns but that he has found a buyer for it anyway. As a broker, convey the offer, indicate you are not trying to hurt anyones feelings and to please...don't kill the messenger.  It is just an offer, they don't always work out...but something to consider.  Although you wished you did not have to present the offer that is so hopelessly upside down and unrealistic, get it done quickly and respond with the seller's position.  Don't chatise, lament or get riled up...just convey it and keep the marketing machine going.  Let them know you are showing the place again to another prospect and keep moving.  Maybe the idea of someone else buying will make a world of difference.  Or you the seller's agent becomes the enemy keeping the buyer from stealing the property.  He may need a buyer's broker to tell him this is not going to fly, and to reiterate what you have been telling him right along.  Be glad there is a buyer's broker to "help" him otherwise you are not going to get much other work done for the next five days he is in town otherwise.  The buyer broker you recommend may not thank you later but will return the favor some day!