Sellers usually have a bottom line. A drop dead number they are not going to sell below or in many cases, simply cannot sell below because that number hits their equity in the house and there is no pile of cash in the closet. We are in a recovering market and values are going up for the first time in years, so there are a lot of sellers out there who are just barely, just now breaking even and selling because they wanted to years ago but could not. There is a huge imbalance between supply and demand in Arlington, VA and other surrounding real estate markets. This has lead to an interesting market where many homes are getting multiple offers, but many of those buyers are focused on past values and not taking supply and demand and appreciation into consideration. These buyers are more focused on getting a "deal" than getting a house. And these buyers will likely not buy in this market.
If you are a buyer right now and "not finding any comps" for the house - you should probably look very hard at your own bank account, and have a frank talk with your lender about our loan options, and buy based on what you can afford, what you see the value as, not on what people were paying 7 months ago. Value is subjective, and changes based on circumstances, weather, inventory, interest rates and various other factors. You know the expression, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"? So is value. Appraisers are looking outside the current building or neighborhood for comps, if there simply are no sales that fit the traditional comparable process. I had a house with no neighborhood comps with 3 offers recently, and it did appraise in spite of the dearth of twinkie comps.
Recently, buyers writing on a listing did something I've never have experienced before and it was one of the worst practices I've seen in real estate in 9 years. The buyers had come in well below list price after only a few days on the market. With really no reason why other than referring to a nearly year old comp in the same community. We had no other offers in hand but dozens of showings and many interested parties. The house had barely had time to get full market exposure and this agent/buyer came in very low on price and very rigid on settlement terms, something made clear up front that would only be okay only with the right price. The agent and I talked, buyers came up a bit in price, in writing, and the sellers and I talked, and I suggested the sellers give her their bottom line so they could find out if these buyers were serious or not. And we did. Not in writing, but I verbally told her X was their bottom line and they literally won't and don't have to sell under that. I was very frank with her, telling her that this was a discretionary move into a rental and there was no urgency for them to do this that would cause them to sell so low. With only 4 days on the market, time is still on OUR side and we have two other interested parties supposedly writing offers.
Over the next 24 hours, this agent, on behalf of her buyers, came up by $1,000 4 times. And mind you this is a pretty high priced property. Each time, I said "No, I told you X was their bottom line, no less." She, or they, had the nerve to eventually come up to $1,000 under that bottom line. At that point, because she was making baby steps towards an actual deal, we had one written offer at said bottom line and another one verbally that was higher. I told her this of course, but that did not stop her and her clients from issuing the ridiculous $1,000 under offer, oh, AND no flexibility with the closing date.
At this point, honestly, if this had been the last buyer on earth, I probably would have pushed my sellers to stay in their house. Turns out they felt the same way. Coming with in 1k of a sincere bottom line and not moving on closing was distasteful. The sheer disrespect with which they approached his process was astounding. Trying to figure out how they could have screwed up so badly: They were from another market, and perhaps hadn't picked up a newspaper in awhile, maybe they didn't realize what kind of market we are in? Who knows.
So yes, it does hurt to try sometimes. When a house has been on the market 4 days, is not the time to play hardball. If it is still there in 2 weeks, sure, give it your best shot. I guess they did not have this little bit of advice. Was that $1000 really worth it to those buyers to lose the house? At this point, it wasn't about the money, it was about decency and the way it was done for the sellers. They probably would not have sold to them if they came UP by 5K at that point. Meanwhile, the better offer was ratified the next day.
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