^ counter offer

[hbomdiggity]

We want this house. It's been sitting on the market for 60 days. There have been other offers but seller is stuck on list price and apparently counters back at list (per his agent). We can afford it, but it's really our max.

We offered 15k less than ask. Seller countered at list. We are trying to decide whether to counter back at list but ask for closing costs (5k). Part of me feels that it's been 60 days and noone else has been willing to pay list so is it truly worth list? But given the crazy market, I think it's surprising this house is still available.

I don't want to just bend over and pay more than I have to, but I also don't want to piss seller off with this request so that they don't even counter back. Would you bother asking for closing costs?

This is not a short sale, but current list is 50k less than what seller paid for it (add in realtor fees etc, the seller is taking a signifant loss). It's vacant and seller is no longer in the area.

[juris11]

I would, but I live in a total buyer's market. I don't think asking for closing costs would cause him to not counter back unless he is really unreasonable or has better offers.

[Pom]

I would not say we are in a buyer's market, but the last two houses we have offered on, the sellers have been stuck at list or very close to it. With the first stubborn buyer, we walked. And guess what, 5 weeks later, their house is still on the market. They are nuts.

The house we are under contract for now, we offered $2500 less and $1500 towards closing. They accepted. H was totally in LOVE with the house though and almost had a heart attack whe I suggested we should negotiate further.

[housegeek]

If he's already taken a 50k loss on it, he might just be willing to sit on it until the market gets better or he finds someone to buy it for what hes asking (sounds like the case). If its the perfect house, I'd offer full minus closing like you suggested. What does it appraise for? I was looking at a house the seller refused to go down on, and he was just nutty because he was asking something like 100k over what it appraised for.

[noodleoo]

What does your agent say about the price? Do the comps justify the list price? I wouldn't want to pay more for a house than it is really worth. But on the other hand, if you *LOVE* the house, think about whether or not you'd be heartbroken if you lose it. Is it worth the $5K to you to get the house you really want?

I remember with our house, at the end we countered I think also $5K less than the sellers last offer. While waiting for it, I was *freaking* out that we were going to lose the house over $5K. I told H whatever they counter with, we'll just take it. we were lucky and they split the difference, but I remember feeling dumb that we took the risk of losing the perfect house over $5K (which was 1% of the cost of the house).

[hbomdiggity]

I think it's fairly well priced and worth somewhere in the range of our original offer and list. It should have no problem appraising for list as its in the range of comps, but comps are all over the place so it's hard to use them to narrow down the price if that makes sense.

and what we are asking for closing is less than 1%, so yeah, I feel silly about it, but I also think that I would rather have that $ for something else.

[5thofjuly]

Is it possible that they're losing money on the house and literally don't have any more to take to the table?

[noodleoo]

May 23, 2012 16:29:36 GMT -5 hbomdiggity said:

I think it's fairly well priced and worth somewhere in the range of our original offer and list. It should have no problem appraising for list as its in the range of comps, but comps are all over the place so it's hard to use them to narrow down the price if that makes sense.

and what we are asking for closing is less than 1%, so yeah, I feel silly about it, but I also think that I would rather have that $ for something else.

Try the counter and see what happens. Hopefully the worst that will happen is he will re-counter with the list price. If he actually wants to sell the house, hopefully he'll take it or offer you *something* towards closing.