Lowball Offer on House

[squiffy]

A good agent should be able to provide you with some hard STATISTICS about selling and asking prices.

But as you mention, you have to be very careful about an agent's OPINION. Most agents have a simple economic incentive. They want to spend as little time working for you as possible and make as much money as possible.

If they are representing the seller, their incentive is to get him to lower his price a bit to make a deal, and if they are representing the buyer, their incentive is to get him to raise his offer a bit to make a deal. The agents don't make money unless there is a sale. So ironically, there are stats and studies showing that people that use agents generally sell for a lower price or make a higher offer, than they normally would have, without an agent.

It makes sense. The agent wants his 3% commission as soon as possible. And a change of 5K to 20K in price to make a deal happen, doesn't really affect his commission all that much.

It's unfortunate. But it's hard to find an agent who is not only knowledgeable, but truly has your best interests at heart. In theory they should. But in reality, they are selfish players, like everyone else on the market

An agent can be helpful in many respects. But you should definitely stick to your guns on pricing decisions.

If you want to make a lowball offer and are willing to wait, then do it and heck with the agent.

Though keep in mind that a lowball offer might alienate some sellers and might cost you some deals.

You have to be very careful not to let the agent call the pricing shots. Listen to their advice, but try to get them to provide some hard data to back up their OPINION, and then make your own decision about what price to offer and whether to stand firm.

If you can afford to be patient, be patient. Agents are in a rush to get the deal done at your expense. They need to eat and they need their commission. If the sell doesn't go through they don't eat. So they are happy to have you spend an extra 10K or 20K more, so the deal gets done sooner.