Buyers trying to renegotiate after appraisal came in 10k under

[James Campanaro]

Got a question for anyone:

After having my grandparents home on the market for roughly 3 weeks and several viewings later with NO offers - we get one offer for $100 dollars above asking price LOL - ok so I accepted - house inspected the very next day as if they had it planned which was odd - then the "Rush" appraisal a few days after that. Comes in 10k under what we contracted for. I am not budging but my agent thinks im nuts - No comps in the area to really support it but other houses are listed for well above what I was asking! nothing has really sold yet. So I am trailblazing. Do I agree to the 10k minus price and put my tail between my legs....or offer 5k off and they pay all closing costs so I regain some of the money on the table. If I agree to the full 10k under the original asking price but have them pay closing costs- I will be loosing out on roughly 6k. If I accepted the 10k under price and pay half of closing I loose close to 9.5k!  Not acceptable!  which is odd because I told them I had an estimate to have the floors done for $8500 - it just smells fishy to me - the bank financing this young kid is some off the wall Palm Beach financial bank -  not a major chain bank - 

I think I will stick with my gut as my agent was desperately telling me I will be loosing money as the Markey will start to change soon - oh but wait what did you say last weekend to the buyers agent during the inspection? The market is going to get even more crazier as the weeks go on?? is that what you said or did I have wax in my ears............  

My thoughts on it was (if they really want it - they will fork out the extra 10k that the bank wont finance) This is the excuses that was given to me that they have just enough to get it finance at the orginall asking price but now the bank will only do 10k less and he the buyer doesn't have that extra 10k - oh well!   so what would you all do?  The house is completely paid for - and I wont be loosing a dime if I don't sell it - in fact I have everything to gain if I don't sell it and rent it out for Short Term Rental like Air BnB - The median price for rental is $2200 - to a high of $2600 a month. at 2500 a month thats a clean 30k a year!  POSITIVE cash flow  of course minus taxes, ins and other operating expenses. Taxes are only 1k a year LOL seriously  and roughly $100 for yard maintenance and 80 dollars every 1/4 for pest control - House ins. with rental house insurance for the landlord probably around 2k so honestly not a bad positive cash flow! 

what would you do?? Sell and take the cash and pay of your existing beach house and cc debt and buy a condo on the beach? or rent out grandparents cash cow of a house in port st Lucie? 

[Marcus Auerbach]

James, this is probably not what you want to hear: It comes down to the fact that you don't really know what you want (rent of sell) and now it comes down to pleasing your ego. 

You are obviously overpriced - 3 weeks without an offer is a pretty clear indication - the appraisal just confirmed what you already knew (and you call "trail blazing"). The process is designed to establish fair market value via offers and then as a last check via appraisals. How many buyers looked at your listing and found it to be not worth it, either by not making an offer or by not even seeing it in person. 

This is how you establish fair market value.

Options: if you don't want to accept fair market value, reject their proposal and go back on the market. The market is not going to soften in the next weeks, but you are now damaged goods, because you have been under contracted before and everyone knows it. 

Very likely, if you get another offer, it will be below asking. And it will probably be contingent to an appraisal as well and you don't know how that comes back, same, higher - or less. Bottom line: you have a greater thna 50% risk that you will net even less.

So just take it off the market, apologize to your listing agent for wasting their time and rent it out. You probably should have done that to begin with!