Fannie and Freddie playing games with buyers

[Thomas Handy]

I put an offer on a Homepath 4 bedroom home on Monday for $44,000, a $1000 less than the asking price. Also I asked seller to pay $2000 in closing costs. My realtor told me other buyers also made offers about the same time I made my offer.

As for the property, it's a decent home but needs some cosmetic upgrades - paint, carpeting, touch up a few small holes in the interior, replace the screen doors, and replace the tile flooring. The home also has a stove that needs to be cleaned out. The property is 1300 sq feet. Other wise it looks like a good home but had some bad owners.

I'll keep everyone updated on how this goes.

Tom

[J Scott]

Originally posted by Thomas Handy:

The first offer I put in on a different home I low balled and they didn't even counter. Then I resubmitted an offer for 25% less than their offer and they countered for the asking price. Then a few weeks later they lowered the price to $5000 on what I offered.

This is all standard, and not at all playing games...

If you put in a low offer on one of my houses, I wouldn't counter either -- countering a low offer is bad negotiating strategy. And countering at full-price when you offer 25% of full-price is perfectly reasonable as well -- they want to see if you're serious about coming anywhere near full-price and that's their way of giving you a second chance as opposed to just rejecting your offer; again, something I'd do on one of my properties.