How to make my offer more attractive?

Question

Hey everybody. I’m a new investor and I’m about to offer 20% under market value on duplex that’s on market for over 100 days. I assume owners have money problem, so I thought I’d add paying their closing costs + 5k cash immediately after signing. Can you think of anything else that I can put on the negotiation table that would make my very low price offer more attractive to them? The house is old, so I don’t want to wave any inspection contingencies.

Mitch Messer · Answer

Hi @Juliane Calboli and welcome to BiggerPockets!

You're assuming price is the primary consideration of this seller. What if it's not?

Rather than throwing a bunch of random concessions at the seller, I instead encourage you to first talk to them to discover their actual situation and then help them resolve it. (You mentioned the property being "on market," but you didn't say it was listed, so I'm assuming here that you can contact the seller directly.)

There could be tons of reasons why this duplex hasn't sold yet, and for each of these reasons there exist dozens of strategies that would address it. But before you prescribe a solution, you first need to listen carefully to understand your seller's pain and motivation.You can't expect to hit a target that you can't see!

Matt Leber · Answer

@Juliane Calboli put a larger than normal earnest money deposit down. That will show the seller you are very serious about making the deal happen. If you find issues and want out, as long as you pull out before your contingency period is over you can get your earnest money back.

Juliane Calboli · Answer

@Matt Leber thanks a lot. I’ll definitely use that.

@Mitch Messer you’re absolutely right. I shouldn’t assume anything risking to potentially even insulting somebody. Getting in touch with the seller directly is a bit of a problem. But thanks a lot. Super helpful input for me!