Low ball offer met with counter at full list price haha

[Joseph Weisenbloom]

This one gave me a chuckle. Made an offer on a VA foreclosure that needed some work. The owner had passed away so its not like anyone had an emotional connection to the house.

Surprisingly the house was in good cosmetic condition considering it was vacant but all the mechanicals were old. This place needed a new roof, new furnace, new AC unit, fridge, stove and there was a flood in one of the bathrooms that had created some mold. I estimated 25k-30k in work and made an offer accordingly.

My realtor calls me back today and tells me I ticked off the listing agent hahaha. Am I off base here or does this kind of thing happen all the time? Why do people take this personally?

Share your story of a time you ruffled a few feathers in your pursuit of real estate!

[Michael Seeker]

Sounds like you are taking it personally!  I've had plenty of lowball and even reasonable offers met with full price counters or something close to it.  My favorite is $100 off list price...might as well just reject it altogether.

One in particular I really enjoyed: List price had dropped several times, but was at $125K.  I offered $60K and the bank came back at $115K.  Clearly nowhere near where I needed them to be so I put it on the back burner.  4 weeks later, I resubmitted the $60K offer and the bank agreed to take it if I could close in 15 days.  The best part is if they had countered with something in the $70-90K range the first go around I probably would have taken it!

Your lowball offer might not seem appealing now, but keep putting it in every 20-30 days and don't budge on the highest you're willing to pay.  If that response bothers you it just means you haven't made enough lowball offers yet!