Rational Behind Counter Offer

The thought-process I use when I receive a lowball offer with the dynamics like the one yesterday, is to put myself in the buyers shoes and analyze their perspective. We all know that people want a good deal, especially in the current real estate market where buyers have a lot of leverage. However, I believe there is a difference between a reasonable lowball offer and a ridiculous lowball offer.

So back to the buyers perspective….I would assume that they probably got ‘beat-up’ on the price of their home that they’re are currently under contract on. It would also be reasonable to think that they could be lowballing multiple properties to see if they can just get a good deal.

I believe the best approach is the latter notion from my original post. This would be to counter relatively close to what you would want to settle for. This would leave a little more room for the buyer to perceive that they are beating you up on the price and therefore they think they are getting a better deal.

Start out with an ideal and end up with a deal
-Karl Albrecht

Perception can go a long way in making a deal work. Also, these buyers wouldn’t waste their time putting in an offer unless they really like the property. An offer is the starting point to show their interested…now we just need to bring them back to reality while insisting that they’re getting a good deal.