Have you ever made a "Low Ball Offer"?

[Shaun Reilly]

In my opinion I never have...

I have made offers <10% of the asking price on MLS properties and told people asking over $100K for a place that they would have to pay me to take it, but still wouldn't call anything a low ball.

I find the term annoying as it is just used to mean offering a lot less than the seller wants, without any regard to the VALUE of the property.

I look at a property and what value I think it has to me.  I determine the MOST that I am willing to pay for it and then my initial offer is usually 80-90% of my determined value.  This might only be a small fraction of what the seller wants but I don't think it is "low ball" since it is a strong offer based on what I think it is worth.  They just don't agree with that valuation.

9 out of 10 times the seller wants way to much and they sit on the property for a long time since nobody is stupid enough to give them what they are asking for.  The rest of the time someone does pay more and maybe they are willing to work for less, did a poor job evaluating, do see some value add I did not and it is truly worth more to them or maybe I just was not the right buyer for the place and someone else (maybe an owner occupant) just was okay with a higher price regardless of the numbers.

So what about everyone here?  Do you agree with the way I think?  How do you make offers?  Do you actually make low ball offers (maybe some arbitrary percentage of list price, like 50%, that you hear some gurus advocate)?

[Peter MacKercher]

@Shaun Reilly I take a similar approach to making my offers. List price doesn't mean much, it's just a suggestion to ground negotiations if anything. Like you said, your own valuation should dictate your offer, and not following your own rules would end your real estate venture pretty quickly.

At the end of the day both parties ideally walk away happy with the agreement they've reached, and if that happens at a number above, at or below LP depends so many market and situational factors that it's hard to know how someone will react to your offer. I always say it's more offensive to not make an offer than to make one, so as long as you're making an attempt to offer a fair price based on your evaluation (whatever that is), then party on.