What was your counter? Since they probably need the escrow money to do the fixes, they may be more amenable to a counter that addresses the $10k "discount" instead of one that tries to do away with the escrow.

Hi Jewel654- Ok so asking price was $169900. They offered $159,900 plus the $1k closing and $5k escrowâ¦essentially $16,000 less than our asking price.
We countered with $165,900. no closing costs and no escrow account.
We are hoping they counter back. Bottom line, we would do $159,900 with no closing costs and no escrow. Do you think this sounds reasonable?

Thanks Merry Christmas

Banks don't always even allow for these holdbacks any more. They need to check with their lender. I would give them closing costs but no escrow.

Banks don't always even allow for these holdbacks any more. They need to check with their lender. I would give them closing costs but no escrow.

I don't think you'll need to go as low as $159,900. What are the sold comp prices in your neighborhood?

They are asking for a deal. Agree to the closing and whatever price you are willing to take. Remember, you can't go up.

House been on the market long?

Remember, you will be paying taxes on it this year, so that money will go in an escrow account. If they choose to use it on the garage, they will have to come up with the scratch to pay taxes when they are due.

If it's such a sticking point, negotiate the realtor fees, and ask the realtor to take a cut in commission. You never know, they may trim a half or quarter point in commission.

Thank you all for the input! We are working with a realtor and I think our asking price is fair based on the comps sold in our neighborhood.
The house has only been on the market for 5.5 weeks and this has been the second very interested party to consider it. The first party viewed the house three times then went with a different house.
I think we will counter along the lines of what bragu mentioned above.
I will write follow ups as to what happens as I very much appreciated all of your thoughtful responses. I should have more to share with you all tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Karin,
I doubt that the buyer's lender will approve a repair escrow... since 2008 or so, repair escrows have gone bye - bye. I still have not figured out exactly why. Good luck.

This post was edited by ncrealestateguy on Thu, Dec 25, 14 at 19:14

Any update, Karin?

No real updates :/

Their realtor lost his phone and has been hard for our realtor to get in touch with him. We had to return our counter offer to them by noon yesterday. Our realtor tried to contact their realtor on 12/24 and yesterday morning but was only able to leave a voicemail. We decided not to respond in writing with a counter offer until our realtor could speak with theirs about our concerns and thoughts. So the realtors spoke at noon today... Sounds like they can come up to $164,000 when its all said and done. This being said, we are going to counter at $165,000 with $1000 closing costs and hopefully they will accept it.
Our realtor said it sounds like their realtor is new as he didnt complete all of the original offer paperwork completely and now is very inaccesible due to lost phone.
I'll keep you guys updated! We also had a showing today for a different couple so maybe they will have an interest too. Hopefully :)

Once my updated posted, I re-read it and just wanted to apologize if I come across kind of blah..
I guess I just feel like I cant get too excited until we have an ACCEPTED offer. In the last three weeks, I read through every blog post on this site and learned a lot and one lessons seems to be that a sale isnt a sale until after closing. :)
So I'm just trying to not get my hopes up too much.
But with that being said, I am happy we have an offer and hopeful it all works out. Its just been stressful with the holidays and selling and looking for a new house.
Thanks for understanding. I just didnt want to come across as really bummed or pessimistic.
I tell myself houses DO sell all the time and this could work out.
Ok thanks for listening :)

I would get on the phone to the buyers that looked at it today and let them know there is other serious interest.
You are smart to not get excited yet. I hope all works out.

Hi NCrealestateguy: the people who saw the house yesterday felt the kitchen is too small (its true-its a galley kitchen.)
So the potential buyers countered at $153,900 with $1k closing costs and $5k in escrow. We wont accept this. Our realtor is contacting lender contacts he has to get more info on the concerns of escrows for repairs and as you had noted, if lenders even DO this post-2008. I think after we get more info on it we may just counter back at $161,900 with $1000 closing costs and the buyers can take it or leave it. Essentially if they dont accept our final offer, they are losing the house over $3000.
So we will see...
Will let you guys know. Thanks for your support :)

Or, you are losing it over 5k.

Is there a reason you don't offer to "fix" the garage siding? Therefore side-stepping the escrow issue altogether?

Kirkhall: yes absolutely, I know-we could be losing the sale over $5000. Theres two sides to every sale, its true.
Part of the frustration is we do not specifically know what about the garage they would want repaired. We lived with it as it is for 11 years. Plus I think us offering to make the repairs could open a can of worms as to the extent of the repairs they expect, quality of materials etc.
At this point I think were going to just leave the escrow or doing the repairs for them out of the equation. We are only 5 weeks on the market and I guess its a risk were willing to take if these buyers choose to walk away.
I appreciate the suggestion though and its something to consider.

Careful.
You have a buyer.
My advice is try and work with them.
Sometimes the first offer is your best offer.
I know a house that has been on the mkt for 15 months.
The owner listed at 599, turned down an offer for 550.
Dropped the price to 525 and still waiting for a second
Offer.

You don't say why you are selling... 5 wks in my area is a L.O.N.G. time. What is Average DOM in your area? Why are you selling? Are you relocating? Downsizing? Upsizing? change of work, or just sounded good, and so you are trying it out?

Motivation can be a factor.

Why not have your agent figure out what repairs they need/expect? If they can't do the sale if they don't have an escrow/cash in reserve for the repair, you are out a buyer, no matter the price. But, if you can solve the issue for them, you may be able to get your full price or the price you are willing to take.

just my 2 cents.

Josephene and Kirkhall-- good points. I should have explained more about my situationâ¦

Josephene- I too had always thought bird in the hand is better than 2 in the bush. We are going to try to work this out with the potential buyer as much as we can :) I just think as pinto and ncrealestateguy pointed out, the escrow for repair thing may not even be a feasible option. Our lowest we can/would like to go is $160,000. By giving them $161,900 with $1000 closing costs, this is the best we can offer.
And this ties right in with Kirkhalls point about my motivation and days on marketâ¦.We are combining households. This house is my DHs and I have my own house that I am selling in January (to a family member.) We plan to buy a new house together once both of our places are sold. We have flexibility to stay in my house and rent from my family member for as long as we want but we would like to find our new house to purchase sometime in Spring/Summer hopefully. I got my last house in an auction (went to look at a car and my ex and I bought the house on the spot- fixer upper, lots of work, lessons learned.) The current house I have I inherited and lived in for 4 years. Did a ton of remodeling as well, glad to be selling it to a family member who assisted with the labor of the remodeling and who will appreciate the sentimental value as well. At any rate, I am excited to "pick out" a new home with DH since the last two just kind of landed in my lap (and then required a ton of work). Hoping next one is a move-in ready one.

At any rate, all that to say that no there is no real rush. DH originally wanted to list his house at $179,900. He purchased it for $160,000 11 years ago and put in updated appliances, countertop, sink in kitchen, new roof, new furnace and water heater. (I know this doesn't matter for listing price nowâ¦just saying) :) But realtor said to start with list price of $169,900 which we did. We have had steady activity. Lowest we want to take is $160,000 bottom line. So since we have time, and still in line with DOM for our area (I don't have the exact figures for you kirkhall but I know our realtor gave us those papers somewhere..) I feel like we are willing to negotiate with these potential buyers as long as they can get over the escrow for repairs account. I just do not see us wanting to do that even if it is a possibility with the lender.

The other thought is if these buyers do not bite, we would consider dropping the list price to $164,900 to keep it fresh on the mls. Not sure about this ideaâ¦thoughts?
I'm hoping we hear more today. Will let you guys know. Thanks!

Was that a typo in your update message? Original offer was $159K, latest counter $153K? Did you mean 163K?

Oops! good catch, weedyacres- yes that is a typo. Sorry!
The potential buyers latest offer is $163,900 and asking for $1000 closing costs and $5000 in escrow for garage repair.
We are planning on countering at $161,900 with $1000 towards their closing costs.
Bottom line numbers: $157,900 them. $160,900 us.
:)

Ok sorry, one more additional post from me (the OP'er)â¦

Writing out that they are at $157,900 and we're at $160,900 as bottom lines, I know many of you are probably thinking "Well, just meet in the middle., duh!" I just wanted to say that I would really like that option. I think the hold up is finding out the absolute answer from THEIR lender (if they allow repair escrows) and additional info such as if they do not allow repair escrows, do we just have to give the potential buyers $5000 in cash? And I guess the other grating point is that they seemed to pull the $5000 repair number out of thin air. No contractor was brought over and we weren't told the specific repairs. If so, as another poster noted previously, we could perhaps just do the repairs ourselves. I feel like a few boards to replace rotting wood would not cost $5000 which leads me to believe they either intend to re-side the entire garage and/or also mud jack the floor since there is a crack in it. Which just as an aside, we just scraped and repainted the entire outside of the garage right before putting it on the market so it looks nice.
Also, from what we heard from their realtor, these are young buyers who have a father in law/father who likes to guide them to putting in low ball offers and they already were rejected from a few other homes before putting an offer in on ours. You would think this couple would just want a place of their own by now and stop low balling or maybe their thing is requesting this escrow repair account on things that are not REALLY in disrepair. So perhaps I am jaded having had that knowledge from the get-go.
Anyway, we really don't want to do a repair escrow account. If we can negotiate some numbers regarding sales price and or closing costs, we are open to that and our realtor is trying to convey that to their realtor to convey to them.
So thats all the additional info I believe I have for now. Thanks :)

Update!
Sure enough, our realtor checked with the buyers lender and as many of you said-they wont accept a deal with a repair escrow.
So now our realtor is trying to get a hold of their realtor to discuss and we will negotiate from here.
Still hoping... :)

Both agents should have known this from the very start. It has been this way since about 2008. At least in my area.

This post was edited by ncrealestateguy on Mon, Dec 29, 14 at 20:07

Just a final update: ZERO response from potential buyers realtor. Our realtor made multiple attempts to reach him yet no response from him. I feel this is unprofessional. Couldn't he just respond even with a "buyers have selected another property"? The last we heard from him was the Sunday after Christmas. And we came down to a very good price having accounted for the repair escrow not being an option.

So were just now hoping either these potential buyers come back later once their finances are figured out (and with a new realtor who doesn't lose his phone and become totally unresponsive) or new buyers all together come along. I'm disappointed with their realtor...

Oh well, fresh start in January I guess :) thank you all again!

The other agent may be unprofessional OR he may be applying a negotiating tactic by just not responding and seeing if you will break down with an even better offer.

"Also, from what we heard from their realtor, these are young buyers who have a father in law/father who likes to guide them to putting in low ball offers and they already were rejected from a few other homes before putting an offer in on ours. "

This is the real issue. The agent is rolling over and playing dead for Good Ol' Controlling Dad.

Don't second guess this one. If you got an accepted offer from them, it would probably wind up being the escrow from hell.

Did you all ever see that episode of House Hunters featuring a young couple with the controlling father/in-law? Reminds me of this situation.

At the beginning of the show, the realtor called the couple and resigned. She stated that she had shown them something like 60 houses and father/in-law put the kibosh on every one of them. She said she didn't want to spend any more time on them and that she was done.

The couple was SHOCKED that she quit them. Shocked!

Of course, their situation wouldn't fit the HH formula if they hadn't selected a house from among three choices that the next realtor showed them. I don't know if father/in-law backed off on his own or if they finally told him to back off.

This post was edited by Jewel654 on Tue, Jan 6, 15 at 12:52

Jewel654-haha no I haven't seen that episode but it sounds very similar to this situation. Takes some guts for a realtor to decline working with a couple on national television. But I am sure some people are just really impossible to work withâ¦such as this Father in Law/Father! :)

Sushipup- you are probably right. Some people would make each step difficult. And truthfully, I don't have the patience for whoever is controlling the lack of communication on their end. There are other buyers and we aren't in *that* much of a hurry, thankfully.

NCrealestateguy-yeah I get the cold shoulder tactic that could be played here to make us feel desperate. Kind of the Don't call a girl before 3 days rule when you're dating I guess :) But at this point, our realtor told them our offer: $161,900 with $1000 closing, no escow (via email and vm) and no response. That is pretty darn good. Short of sticking a big Red bow on the house and parking a Lexus in the (oh so scary) garage, Im not sure what else we could have done to try to work with them.

Interesting aside, we had an open house on sunday. 4 parties came through. One was a man video'ing the house to show his son/daughter in law. Helicopter Parenting is hitting the 20-somethings? lolâ¦

I'll let you know how this all turns outâ¦.whenever that is! Thanks :)

Good luck Karin.

Karin, I skimmed thru most of these posts so I apologize if I missed it. Did these buyers even have an inspection done? From what I gather, they made an offer and just came up with a $5000 number to fix the garage? Why not get an estimate yourself for the garage, then you have some real facts?

you have other options. So maybe you should wait
For a legit offer. Have an inspection made. If the buyer
Comes back with a reasonable offer great.
ask their realtor if they were approved for such a loan?
Good luck
Josephene

Hi All- OP here. I promised you all an update and now that we have closed as of Friday, I can give that to you!

Well in the end the buyers credit union DID accept an escrow account for repairs. The buyers ended up only wanting the roof of the garage addressed and so they got two quotes and we went with the lower one ($1800) . The buyers credit union requires a 150% escrow so we put $2700 into the escrow account for their $1800 repair quote and they have until 5.1.15 to get the work done. The buyers came back later saying that we should have gone with the higher quote (um, why would we as the SELLERS go with the higher quote?! If they wanted that, they should have requested that in the counter.)

We reduced our price to $167,900 and the buyers came in with an offer of $169,000, with $2700 in escrow for the garage repair and $1000 towards closing costs which we agreed to.

Anyway, I am so happy this deal all went fine. It was a difficult few weeks as the buyers seemed demanding and their realtor seemed like an unorganized mess.

So now we are on the house hunt for a new place. Naturally now that we have both of our homes sold, there isn't much to look at on the market (winter in the mid-west) however I am hoping that more comes on the market soon!

Thank you all

:) Karin

Karin, good to hear! Good luck on the house hunting.