Realtors have a fiduciary obligation to present all offers their clients want presented. Even if the realtor thinks the offer is ridiculous. Even if the realtor feels that presenting the offer would be a complete waste of time for everyone.

Just counter back full price. NOT a few thousand off, like $430k, but full price. And delete anything else they may ask for. Shows that you are interested in selling. If they are interested in buying, they'll come back with a better offer.

It's 23% off. I don't think it's that insulting. We regularly make offers of 25% off as a starting price. We are not always successful but when we are it's a good deal.

My sister and her husband once made an offer on a place and the agent said that he wouldn't pass on the offer to the client. I wonder if rules are different here in Australia. Personally, I think agents should have to pass on all offers no matter what they think of them.

We made an offer 100K below asking price. The seller countered close to asking. We countered closer to our low offer. We finally settled in the middle. We recently sold another house and got an early offer well below what we were willing to sell the house for. I didn't want to counter but the realtor said we should even if at full price which is what we did. Buyer came back a few weeks later and we settled on a price close to what we were asking.

I personally would likely not counter an offer of 100K off my ask price, but I know my asking price is always dead-on and I'm not wholesaling. I only want that retail turn-key buyer. Also I am not in a crazy cost-of-living area so 100K off asking price would be shocking. Realtors are obligated to present them all to the client.

If your house has been on the market a few months, it is either a really bad time of year to sell in your jurisdiction, or you have overpriced it up front, which just invites lowballs like that. Or perhaps you are in a new area and are being undercut by a builder. One of those things is likely.

Why don't you replace that carpet? And freshen up any paint that requires it. A few hundred up front at a discounter for a new carpet is much better than tens of thousands off! Or uncover hardwoods if you have them.

Counter back at what you think is acceptable... there are threads on here all the time where the buyers who made lowball offers, eventually came back with an acceptable offer.

Thank you all for your responses. This is a very interesting situation and caught me off guard because it seems like such a waste of time to me to start so far apart but I'm not well versed in the real estate negotiating process. We aren't in a hurry - haven't even found another house and are now considering building. I just felt like they were looking for someone desperate to make a deal.

I am happy to give a carpet allowance but I won't replace the carpet now with 3 small children - 6 year old and 2 year old twins - because it wouldn't look new for very long with those 3 (I feel like i'd have to cover it in plastic until we move).

Exactly.

You can always counter for more than the original listing price. Sort of the Don Corleone strategy (although I think it would be a bad idea to send Luca Brasi out).

Once when we were selling, we had the same thing happen. We simply rejected it. I think they thought me might be desperate to sell. We hung on for several more months to get what we felt was a more reasonable offer. House was listed at $469K and we got a $469K full price offer....you just need the right person to come along.

You might send a "seller rejects offer but invites buyer to submit offer of at least $XXX" to keep from getting embroiled with an unreasonable buyer, in case a better offer comes in.

I wish you the best!

I was on the buyer end of this once. We saw a house we sort of liked, but it had some drawbacks. We were relocating, so we needed to move somewhere. We submitted a lowball offer (although certainly not $100K less!), but something we felt would be a "good deal" enough to buy that house.

They flat out rejected it with no counter. I guess I don't blame them, but I think they made a mistake (unless they had lots of other offers on that house). We walked away. If they would have countered, even a couple thousand off asking, we may have moved on our price just to stop house shopping (we were moving from out of state). It can't hurt to entertain a potential buyer. They may just be rolling the dice to see if they get lucky.

I would counter with $1000 off the asking price if you want to communicate that you heard their offer, but you're not desperate, and you are not willing to have a fire sale. If they were just hoping to snap up a bargain and weren't serious, they will probably go away; but if they were just sounding you out and are more serious, you might get a decent counter that is more realistic.

In addition, an important question you should think about before any negotiation is this: What is the least amount of money you would accept for your house if you could sell it tomorrow? Only the asking price? $10K lower? $30K lower? What? Thinking about this in advance helps you figure out how to respond to offers, and prevents you from getting slowly ground down to a selling price you may later regret.

Comps in the neighborhood over the last few years have ranged from ($110 a square foot to $135 a square foot)

__

Info not worth diddly

Does not matter what something sold for a 'few year' ago.

Only matters as to what other places sold for in the last 6 months within 1/2 mile or less.

If nothing sold in the last 6 months within 1/2 mile go out 1 mile. Still nothing, go out 2 miles (just so it is the same town)

If nothing within 2 miles in the last 6 months, go to 9 months and 1/2 mile.

The fact that your tax assessment went down tells me that prices are FALLING in your area. In my area prices are still falling on the high-end waterfront 2nd homes.

You are not going to get a sale based upon last years prices.

I just ran into a seller who had his 3 bedroom home for sale at $999k. It sat there for 4 months. He took it off for 3 months and then re-listed it at $1,090,000. We offered halfway between $999k and $1,090,000. So our offer was $1,045,000. He ignored us for 3 days and then countered at $1,150,000. Yes, $60k over his re-listed price. Apparently during those 3 days he sought counsel from SOMEONE who took a comp from 5 miles away on a house near the lake and by town.

We walked.

The property was beautiful with a park-like setting, about a 15 minute drive up into the mountains from town. Gorgeous tall ceilings on 5 acres in a gated community. But we didn’t feel like dealing with a seller like that.