RE Agents: Insulting to lowball offers?

[Ben Petersen]

Hey fantastic RE agents of BiggerPockets!

Earlier today, I was speaking with a friend of mine regarding a few properties that I am looking at. One of the property's is a SFH fixer upper and the owners are "extremely motivated" - it is vacant, they are out of state and just want the property gone. Property needs enough work that the average MLS buyer probably wouldn't be interested. The seller already had one contract fall through.

MLS asking: 200k

ARV: estimated 260k (ish?)

In talking with my friend, I mentioned I might offer 150k or even lower. You know, shoot my shot and maybe I’ll score. My friend was appalled I would do that, citing that my RE agent wouldn’t do that because of a “RE Agent Code” that essentially says that submitting offers lower than 20% would insult the sellers agent and my RE Agent’s reputation would be damaged.

Is it wrong that I want an agent to send lowball offers? In my mind, I would want to send out 20 offers and hope one works out. Am I wrong in that thinking? If my agent won’t send low offers, do I need to get a new one?

Thanks in advance!

[Marshall M.]

@Ben Petersen go for it, send the lowballs. I suggest that instead of sending 20 offers, send 20 emails or texts and reach out to the listing agents and see if they would even consider a low offer before your agent spends a ton of his or her time writing 20 of them. You’ll have much better success. Send an email feeling out the listing agent with a price range, then have your agent send the offer if they’re willing to show it to the seller. Most agents won’t even present a low ball offer even though they’re legally supposed to because it makes them look bad in front of the seller.