By the time buyers are at the point of making an offer, they obviously want the house. But they're not going to pay more than they think it's worth. Besides, even if they did want to pay more than it's worth, the bank-ordered appraisal's going to undermine that masochism.
So...prices are going to trend toward reality.
I just had an instance where my market (I represent the buyers) was more than 10% less than the asking price. We talked about what a good price might be, and made our initial offer keeping in mind a series of hypothetical counters that would cause us to arrive at the "good" price.
That's part of the strategy I use when I work as a buyer's agent in Montpelier. I mean, negotiation and price strategy are both part of the game, right?
But the other agent thought differently. I was told to tell my buyers that the seller's only concession would be $1000, and that the seller didn't expect another counter. I believe the exact words from the other agent were "Come up to that price, or look for a different house."
Ahhh...but they had already looked for a different house. My buyers were on the stick. They actually suggested to me that we write out two contracts on two different properties in the Montpelier real estate market, just to be safe.
So they looked for a different house. And put an offer in on it.
What would have been the harm in negotiating to a price reflective of the market??
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