|
When folks are shopping for that perfect Sarasota home, they naturally want to get the best home they can for the least amount of money. No one sets out to spend as much as they can on anything, whether it is a car, boat or a home. But how far can you really take that mentality? Is a low-ball, or below value, offer ever a good idea? Let´s take a closer look.
As with pretty much everything, the more you know about the home buying process, the better off you´ll be. When you are shopping for Sarasota FL real estate, try to get an idea of what that exact real estate market is like. Remember, just because one part of a city or even a nearby neighborhood is the hot place to buy that doesn´t mean that every locale around that area is hot, too. Ever area is different and you need to discover what the local trends are in that immediate neighborhood before you decide if you´re in a buyers market or in a sellers market.
Just for a quick review, a sellers market is when there is very little inventory and a high demand. This allows the seller to ask for a bit more than the actual value of the home since there is very little competition. A buyers market is just the opposite. There is a lot of inventory and low demand so a seller might have to ask for a little less then the appraised value.
One of the biggest keys to finding out if you can submit a lower offer than the asking price is seller motivation. It can be a bit of a chore finding out how motivated the seller is. Usually, your realtor can uncover some insider information that will help shed some light on how badly the seller needs to close.
If the seller is very motivated, by, say, a pending divorce or if they need the money from their current home so that they can close on a new one, you might be able to get away with a low ball offer. What happens in most cases is that the low offer will be given a counter offer that you can either accept or decline. Otherwise, your low-ball offer might offend the home seller and they will cut off all negotiations with you completely. Submitting a low offer can be very dangerous, especially if you really like the home.
If the seller is not super-motivated, a low-ball offer is essentially pointless. An unmotivated seller has the time and the resources to pick and choose which offer to accept and they are ready to wait it out for just the right buyer. If you´re hoping to kick start the negotiating process by first submitting a low offer and then working up to something more realistic, you might want to be careful with your initial low offer because if it is too low, you can burn that negotiating bridge before you´ve even had a chance to start.
Other than a motivated seller, you can also submit a low-ball offer if you believe the asking price to be unreasonably inflated. When you submit your bid, you can add in the fact that other area realtors and appraisers felt that the home was only worth your offer price and not the asking price. But be careful, if the offer is too low, you can ruin any chance of negotiating.
A final way to get a beautiful new Sarasota home for less then the asking price is to have a large amount of your offer in cash. Once you´ve gotten the financing taken care of and you´re ready to submit an offer package, if a large amount of your offer is up front cash and not a mortgage, it can save the seller a bundle which would make the low-ball offer worth it. It´s the same essential principle as buying a car in cash. You´ll usually get a much better deal.
Offering to buy a home with a lower than the asking price offer is a dangerous game to play. Yes, you might save yourself a few thousand or even more with a low offer, but unless you have some kind of rock solid information that lets you know your offer will be taken seriously, it´s best to avoid these low offers at all costs.
GBrey | 