Put in a lowball offer on a place in Hamilton and they actually countered

We saw a semi detached listed at 699k that had been sitting for 45 days, so we offered 650k just to see. The seller came back at 675k, which is way more movement than I thought we'd get. It taught me that places sitting for a while might have more flexible sellers than the listing shows. Anyone else had a seller actually negotiate down lately?

3 comments

3 Comments

anna_carter533mo ago

Yeah, that's a solid counter. I've found when a place sits that long, they're often way more open to talking price than the listing lets on. Good move starting low.

avery6291mo ago

Three months on market, 47 days without a showing, and that's exactly when I'd be most careful @anna_carter53. I helped a friend look at a house last spring that had been sitting for six months with two price drops. Turned out the foundation had a crack running through the whole back corner that the inspector caught. The owner was so desperate to unload it they never fixed it right, just threw some quick patchwork over it. Sometimes a long sit means the seller is flexible, but sometimes it means there's a reason nobody else wanted it either. You gotta dig into why it's still there before you start lowballing.

ninasingh3mo ago

Totally. Another thing I watch for is if they've had a few price drops already. Sometimes the first big cut gets a lot of lookers, but if it still sits after that, the seller is often just done with the whole process. I saw a condo last year that dropped 30k, then another 15k two months later. By the time I saw it, the owner was basically just waiting for someone to make any decent offer so they could move on with their life.