It sucks when buyers make low ball offers on your home. Should you reject or counter a low offer? Today, I’m tackling this exact question, How should sellers respond to low-ball offers? Trust me, it can be frustrating when you receive a low offer on your home.

I am Jodi Bakst, Broker Owner of Real Estate Experts, working in Chapel Hill and Durham, North Carolina for the past 28 years.

So, you get a piece of junk offer on your home. What should you do?

First off, it may feel disheartening to get what seems like a 'junk' offer. I have a few mottos in Real Estate and one them applies to this exact situation, Don’t shoot the buyer who made you the offer, shoot the buyers who did not make you an offer! Even a low offer means the buyer is interested in your home. This, hopefully, opens the door for negotiation. Even if the offer is horrible, I recommend countering it to tease out the reason for the buyer coming in so low.

Now, let's talk about why buyers make low-ball offers. Sometimes buyers are just testing the waters. They want to see how low you will go but they really are negotiable. Some buyers make low offers, and they mean it. The disappointing thing about this situation is agents rarely tell you if the offer is a take it or leave it offer. When you don’t know this, you wind up spending valuable time and mental energy thinking about how to respond when the buyer is only going to walk away.

More often than not, buyers are testing the waters, and they will negotiate. Be patient, in these situations, it can sometimes take weeks to get a property under contract. You can go back and forth many many times until the deal is finally done. Be patient.

Here’s what you should do.

First, when you receive a low offer, make sure your listing agent asks the buyer’s agent if their client is negotiable. You don’t need to waste your mental energy if they aren’t going to negotiate. If they are not negotiable, you have two choices, take it or leave it.

Second, be realistic about the price of your home. Why did the buyer make you a low offer. Yes, sometimes they are testing but it’s usually for a reason. Does your house need a lot of updating? Is the house overpriced and sitting on the market? It is critical that you have your eyes wide open about your situation so you can negotiate and get the best deal possible.

Third, there are low offers and then there are really low offers. If the offer is outrageously low, counter but don’t move much. Send the message to the buyer that you will negotiate but they need to get more realistic. You need to see their counter. If they are still way off, you can try again but the signal is it’s not likely to work.

If, however, the buyer counters and they make a significant jump and they come into the right ballpark, you are in business and you can start negotiating for real.

Sometimes you, the seller, need to make a decent counter and then in subsequent counters, make smaller increments to signal you are not moving much more.

Remember, be patient with low ball offers. Tease out why the buyer made a low offer and be realistic on your end about the true value of your home.

I am Jodi Bakst with Real Estate Experts working in Chapel Hill and Durham North Carolina. I hope you found value in this video. Please click on the like button and subscribe to my YouTube channel. I add new content for home sellers and buyers weekly.

Stay tuned for next week where I will talk about how you juggle selling a home and buying a home at the same time.

Until next week…..