 |
Negotiating Problems |
| |
 |
My husband and I have fallen in love with a home which has a listed price of 299k. We know that it was purchased by the seller just 6 months ago for 270k, and has not made any improvements to the property. We put in an initial offer of 265k, and the sellers gave a counter-offer of 297. We then offered 280, and they countered 293. We backed off after this because we felt the seller was asking too much/giving too little, and then the sellers agent told us that they'd accept an offer of 290. We still felt this was too much, but reluctantly agreed because we really liked the house, and the seller also threatened that there were other people interested in the house. (we are moving to a small town where the market is quite small, and there are no other houses we like very much.) We sent in an offer for 290, and to our disappointment, the seller refused to sign. First he said he had to contact his attorney, then he said he had changed his mind and was not in a hurry and would not sell for less than the listing price.
My questions are: do you think this is a negotiating technique on his part? Or do we have a bad agent? We could agree to 299, but feel like we are being taken advantage of. If we do agree to 299, what is to stop the seller from asking for even more? Is this a common problem, or do counter-offers usually come in a legally binding form? |
| |
| |
 |
That's the problem with too many offers and counter-offers -- people begin to take it all personally, someone says "It isn't the money, it's the principle of the thing" and the whole deal falls apart.
I can tell you that once both parties have signed a written agreement to the same terms, that's binding.
Once one party has signed a written acceptance of the other party's written offer, you have a firm contract.
|
| |
|
Edith
Originally published on May 12, 2008 |
| |
| |
|
Back to Summary
|
< Previous | Next > |
| |
|
|
