I would have been fuming as well! Don't think you're being sensitive. Low ball or not, you're anxious and wondering, it'd be nice to know something - anything!

I've been on pins and needles for 3 weeks waiting for a supposedly interested buyer to make an offer. I just want to get on with it, regardless of the number!

Why did you reject outright? Why not counter? What is your version of lowball? 75% of list? 90% of list? Are you in line with current comps?

I would be furious. Your agent's job is to present all offers to you, not to play judge and jury about what kind of offer it is. What if it had a 24 hour expiration and you had wanted to counter? My agent would never have left on Saturday if she knew an offer was in the works, or else she would have made arrangements to have the offer faxed to her when it was finished so she could present it immediately.

This guy was too lazy to do his job and is now trying to weazle out of it. I'd cut him off.

I can't imagine how ticked off you must be. You have every right and I would notify the agent's broker that you find this unprofessional behavior and you would like an explanation as to why it was allowed to happen. This process is bad enough without having to wait for days to hear news.

According to the code of ethics in my area (central NY), realtors "must present offers and counteroffers as quickly as possible" Note, it does not say as "conveniently" as possible. It is not up to your realtor to decide what is acceptable or not. In fact, it is unethical.
Jo

In addition to not even presenting the offer, HE ASKED YOU TO COME BY HIS OFFICE?? I would refuse, why can't he come to your house.

Also, I agree, counter, always counter. But then again, you lazy agent should have helped you handle that.

Have to agree with everyone, you are not sensative...

I see you go to the great lakes gardening forum, are you in the US or Canada?

I'm also curious as to how low they offered that you didn't counter.

Was he sincere when he said that he didn't present it right away because he didn't want to ruin your Sunday?Perhaps, he meant it. By supposedly being sensitive to your feelings, he was insensitive to your anxieties as a seller. I'm guessing, he didn't know better. He was looking at the dollar figure, not your emotional rollercoaster.
He has no idea how a seller LIVES for feedbacks & wants the house shown to ONLY BUYERS...and good buyer at that-lol
If someone looks, doesn't put in an offer & gives some kind of lame feedback i.e. too big, you start saying things like "why did they look at this house???....they saw the square footage in the flyer!!! People give you lame feedback, which isn't even accurate just to get you & the realtor off their back. Maybe because they were just tire kickers, or viewing yours as a last house to compare it to the other one that they chose...

I would give him the benefit of the doubt & tell him next time report any news immmediately.
Not everybody thinks the same way.

Sometimes people who have not been in your shoes (selling their own house)don't understand the ANXIETY one experiences when selling their home.
Just because he's a realtor doesn't mean that he's on your wavelength ;)

My male physicain doesn't know what my cramps feel like. Sure, he's seen women doubled over in pain. Read about it in a book...you get my point.

NOBODY, I mean NOBODY knows what a seller goes through in a bad market, unless they have been there. I have & IT is one of the worst things anyone can go through. My DH didn't feel half the stress that I did. Of course, I was in charge of the entire operation- staging, cleaning, showing, troubleshooting...

He would just hear my telling him to please excuse my actions because I'm a crazy woman today. He'd be like ok honey, want to grab a bite to eat? EAT? my stomach was in a knot from running around, cleaning like mad for a lookie-Lou!!!

Selling the last house just about did me in. Esp. after the first buyers backed out & threw me into the winter season with a rapidly declining market due to the media...

Being a good realtor means being a good Psychologist. The emotional business of selling your home can drive you into a Looney Bin-LOL
Hang in there. Lowball offers seem to be the "in" thing now. Your desperation is being tested.

Remember, there is a buyer for your house. One who will not significantly lowball you & won't complain about a smudge mark on the wall ;)

I find the people who were just lookers had the most complaints during a showing. They didn't buy my house, nor any other. They drove the realtors BATTY. The ones who were serious (finally, I had 2 buyers), loved it & weren't bothered by BIG things. Selling the last house was the biggest learning experience. Probably, because I was selling during a weird market. Aug 06, then took it off the market & then Oct-Dec 06.

Original Poster here....

Thanks. I feel a little better now.

To answer a few questions:

Offer was way low....about 80% of list and included contingencies such as buyer selling their home and they wanted us to include things that were not negotiable and not for sale!

Thanks, folks. P.S. to Roselvr - we are in the U.S.

how does your list price fair with the comps? how is your local market? what is the price trend in your market?

Instead of just being ticked off, I would absolutely have a chat with your realtor to let him know your expectations. Make sure that the air is clear and that there are no misunderstandings.

Talk to the broker and clarify you must be notified immediately of any offers, in writing.

This is interesting, are you in Michigan and people think a seller will take any offer?
Are that big of a low ball some sort of test? And now that people here now how low it was - is the feeling still you should always counter?

Why didn't you counter? You never know what the next offer will bring (or when), so countering a more reasonable amount without all the extras may have worked. As far as the contingency that required their selling their home - either counter without that, or insert a kick-out clause. Make certain you house will still be marketed as an open listing though.

Selling a house in a buyer's market is stressful enough. Making you wait days on end to hear anything is ridiculous.

mariend said: "Talk to the broker and clarify you must be notified immediately of any offers, in writing."

Ditto. If this is in writing, you can always confirm the time and date with the buyer.

Mary, I would ask...why would one not counter? As I understand the situation, Michigan's economy is in the tank. A buyer...any buyer is a good thing. My feeling would be if I'm trying to sell into that type of market environment, I don't have the luxury of being so proud I won't even counter. How does one know what those potential purchasers might have done if nobody even asks them? There are many real buyers that always start their offers low (myself included). Just don't understand how getting angry helps anybody?

About the Realtor...yes, they should have presented the offer immediately upon receipt. Just have a little talk with them. If that doesn't do the job then escalate to the broker.

Good luck with your move.

Tricia

We once received an insultingly low offer on a home we were selling back in the 80's. I was so insulted that I just wanted to reject it outright. My husband was the calming voice of reason and insisted that we counter offer and we actually were able to negotiate a higher price offer on that home. I learned a lesson, always counter. 80% of list is insultingly low, plus the inclusions they were asking for in addition to the low price sounds like they were scavengers looking to capitalize on someone's bad fortune more than being serious home buyers. I'd still counter even in that situation, with a ridiculous counter offer to prove a point. My husband would talk me out of that however and still try to work the deal.

You do have every right to be upset with your agent for not presenting the offer in a timely fashion. I'd be upset as well, no matter what the offer was.

Triciae - you misunderstood me - I was asking the question of what people thought if the market was significant different.

cordovamom: Does that mean that if I believe a house is overpriced by, say, 30%, that I should just forget it and walk away? Are all "lowball" offers insulting? We have a couple of houses that we've been looking at, which have been on the market for awhile now, which after looking at the market carefully we feel are considerably overpriced. I am not really worried about "insulting" the sellers; I just feel they are asking too much for their house and also think there is a chance that we will catch them at a time when they're ready to realize this and just get the house sold. These are nice houses in great neighborhoods but need a lot more updating than similar houses in the same neighborhood and price range.

How is a buyer going to know what is going to insult a seller? Before our last move we made an offer of 93% listing on a house that was enough overpriced that this should have been a GREAT offer, yet the sellers were terribly insulted. Our agent was speechless. OK, we insulted them, so what? That's their problem... this is a business transaction!

In a buyer's market we plan to make low offers and hopefully the sellers will counter so we can get an idea of how they are thinking. (I won't ask for personal belongings as part of the deal though!) But if a seller refuses outright to work with us, or else counters with something that indicates they won't work with us, we'll just walk. There are other houses.

I realize this post probably doesn't apply to the original poster's situation by the way...

We have no idea if 80% is low ball. So what if it is...

Case Study:

I purchase a home in 2002 for $500K. Market skyrockets.

Now, it's late October 2005. I have accepted a job transfer 2,000 miles away. I'm highly motivated to sell because I don't want to be a long distance landlord or have the home sitting vacant & appearing to be abandoned.

I list at $800K based on recent neighborhood sales.

Receive an 80% offer of $640K after 2 months on the market. Low ball? I think not.

I work the deal & end up at 87% of listing price or $696K.

Assuming 8% costs to sell, I net $640.3K. That's a net profit of $140.3K in 3 years. That just under 9% per year appreciation. Not bad. OK, I've not fully capitalized on a runaway market but I've met my needs of selling the house & walked with a nice profit. Why should I feel "insulted"??

I made a business decision. After calculating in my cost of funds (I can't do something else with my money because it's tied up in the house) to hold the house another 2-3 months to get closer to my asking price (maybe?)...it's a solid decision to sell at 87% of list. One could make a strong case that to hold out for more is greed?

What am I missing? Where does insulted fit in this case study based on an 80% original offer?

Tricia

Tricia you know how this works. People need to detach from their home and sell a house. It seems to be a very, very difficult thing for many people to do. I think in all the time I've read this board there was only one thread (and it was recent about the people who asked for the dog crate, etc) where I couldn't blame the sellers for feeling "insulted" (more like they didn't want to deal with unrealistic buyers).

80% of list may have been reasonable - it may have been a buyer trying to get a deal. Whenever an offer comes in it should be presented asap, and countered if originally unacceptable. There may come a time when any potential buyer's PITA factor becomes so high pursuing a contract with them may not be the best economic course (hey, valium isn't cheap :-P), but a counter is always in order because Hey, you never know.

In some markets 80% of asking is insulting, assuming the home is priced right. The OP felt the offer was insulting enough not to counter. Some sellers do have their homes overpriced and a wake up call of an offer closer to true market value is what they need. I'm assuming here for the sake of the OP that her home was priced right. That may not be the case, but I was giving her the benefit of the doubt.

When you're trying to buy a home you have to come up with a number that is right for you. If that's significantly under the asking price, it may insult the seller or it may give them a wake up call. Either way, I'd never pay more than what I believe to be the true market value, whether I insult the sellers or not.

On the other hand if my home is worth reasonably close to what I'm asking and I get a lowball offer, yeah I'll be insulted. That's my perogative. Would I be insulted enough not to counter? My first instinct would be yes, but my hubby being the voice of reason would talk me into countering.

Here I am again...Original Poster.

This is in Michigan, BUT, it's in a resort community, lakefront. We are building a larger, retirement home nearby. This has been our summer/second home. We sold our primary residence in Texas last May (in three days!!).

We put substantial improvements in this house because we knew we'd be living in it full time while we built the new place. We feel we priced it at close to our break even point in order to move it quickly. We did lots of comps and our house is priced right.

I think the market is going to improve here soon. There's evidence that people still want a second home, but the big, pricey ones are sitting on the market. Ours is small, but modern and well cared for.

Back to my original issue....the agent should not have sat on the offer. He should have presented it promptly.

denise you're right, he should have presented the offer promptly.

I agree with Cordovamom. Not every house is listed high.
When I was selling, I listed my house 20k below what the realtors suggested. That represented almost 4% less than I should have listed for. Lowball offers on a lower priced home are insulting.

Last week, a new listing came on the market. They are asking 679k. They purchased the house as new construction for 559k in 2005. YUP, offering them 579k would NOT be lowballing. The homes have not appreciated since 2005, especially if they bought new construction. I feel sorry for the young couple. They are trying to sell it FSBO, and way overpriced. I'll be watching to see what happens...