Thread: $2000 Difference, seller refuses to budge. Loses Buyer and complains!

How many times have you heard that before? A stubborn seller, who attempts to outfox the buyer, only to have the buyer walk away in utter disgust and move to another home?
I thought I`ve seen it all until yesterday afternoon. We`re in the midst of negotiating a Single Family home in Silver Springs Florida with another agent. The asking price on the home was $193,000. Our buyer offered based on the comps in the area a very fair and reasonable price of $184,500.
We already have a loan commitment in hand, can close in less than 30 days and what we thought was a "No Brainer" turned out to be a "No Win Situation" and hopeless!
We sent the offer in on Thursday, the agent acknowledged the offer and before speaking to the seller, started by telling us that the seller won`t budge under $188,000!
She claimed the seller wasn`t in any hurry to sell and would only sell at that price. Famous last words, right!?? We have a habit of telling other agents just to present our offer and let the seller decide.
My belief is that sometimes agents in general, don`t realize that "Speaking for a Seller" especially when an offer arrives isn`t "good business".
I aways want the sellers to decide what they want, not what I want! I explained to the other agent that this offer is a great offer and not presenting it wouldn`t be advantageous to her client! She agreed and called us two hours later!

Agent: I`m sorry, although you have a generous offer, my seller is firm on her price of $188,000. She won`t lower her price. She feels she can wait the market out!
Me: Did you explain to her that normally the first offer is usually the best offer, in this case, it appears the home has been on the market for 100 days, is she serious about selling?
Agent: Very. We both feel that she`ll eventually locate a buyer who understands "How Beautiful" this home is! Under Selling a home isn`t what I promised her when i took the listing!
Me: So you`re stuck at one price and that`s it? What if we get the buyer to come up to $186,000. Would the seller find it in her heart to part with her home?
Agent: Again, I don`t believe she will.
I`m stubborn, I hate to hear things from agents that form an opinion without consulting their client. It`s a major sign that an agent isn`t looking out for the interest of their client, they`re looking at their own pocket!
I call the buyer, explain the situation and the buyer agrees that $186,000 is our final offer! I`m with the buyer that a home that`s been on the market for 100 days isn`t going anywhere so fast,either the seller is willing to sell with a difference of $2000 or we just move on!
Me:We faxed the changes that now reflect $186,000. All other terms and conditions remain the same. How fast can you get the seller to sign off on this offer?
Agent: $186,000? I guess you didn`t hear me.
Me:Oh, I heard you loud and clear, our offer is firm! Can we cease playing games now? We have a loan commitment, the home can be closed very quickly and quite frankly with a $2000 difference in price, we`re being ridiculous to say the least!
Agent: I`ll get back to you!
I call our buyer, and the buyer is very upset that the seller and agent aren`t cooperating! I explain that sometimes sellers like to play "hardball", I`m positive that they`ll relent with our offer and agree to sign. One hour later the agent calls, again, she tells me the seller refuses our offer!
This time i`m mad! I tell the other agent that we`re done if the seller isn`t accepting the offer we`re going to have the buyer rescind the offer and stop playing games.
I offer to pitch in $500 of our commission to make the seller feel better if that will help!
Agent: You and the buyer will have to find another home, there isn`t anything on the market that matches the "Beauty of my listing".
Me: I guess you and your seller will sit on the home another 100 days. Good Luck!
Agent: You mean you won`t counter offer?
Me: I`ve been trying to tell you that our offer is firm! We`re done! Our buyer is very upset...
Agent: You`ll have to do better, you can do it...
The seller`s agent sounded more like "Mother Hen" as she hung up on me. I realized now that there wasn't any hope in closing this. The buyer agreed and we faxed a rescind letter, pulling our counter offer,essentially waving Good Bye to the seller and "Mother Hen".
At 7:00pm, I received another call from "Mother Hen". This time she`s very sweet and kind to me..
Mother Hen: Why is it so hard to get your buyer to agree to paying the extra $2000 that we requested?
Me:The buyer wanted the house, she still does, but in our business we compromise. I guess your seller should understand that!
Mother Hen: It`s your loss, you do realize this.....My seller feels that you and your buyer are cheating her!

I`ve been involved in 1000`s of transactions thoughout my career,never have I been told we`re "cheating a seller" out of $2000!
I do hope that eventually the seller figures out that her Realtor was the only one that cheated her, out of a sale!

"The Beauty of her home", LOL. It's still a buyer's market and the beauty of a home means jack (pardon my french) if the buyer doesn't like the beauty of the price.

wow that is unreal....I can you feel your pain. Some times I just want to reach through the phone and strangel these REALTORS!

Just out of curiosity, what do you feel the home was worth based on a CMA? Sometimes empirical data can be very persuasive. What I mean is, did you explain to the agent that you had provided your buyer with the cma and because of that they are educated about their decision. Did you try to educate the seller's agent? Do you know if the agent presented the offer?

You said that you did a cma, but did you explain how you based your value to the listing agent?

Agents like that are very frustrating.

and how much will the seller be paying in interest in just the next 3 months... my guess with the price you were quoting is more that the flipping $2000 - Sometimes they get what they deserve - might track this listing - sounds like they will need a better agent soon.

Bummer.
I have been down both roads, being on the buyer and seller side.

On the buyer side, there have been times the sellers agent never presented the offer. When I asked why the response was they won't go for it. After some pressure they finally presented the offer and the seller accpeted with some minor changes. Sometimes agents feel they are protecting their client from bad offers, instead of doing their job and allowing the seller to make the final decisions.

On the seller side, also came across a buyer with a lowball offer, presented to seller and seller told them to take a hike. No counter offer. Buyer came back with a better offer but still not enough. By this time the seller was not interested in selling to the buyer at all.

Remember, just because you think you are making a reasonable offer, there are a lot of people to convince of the same. You never know what a buyer or seller will do.

Do you think you could have offered the ask price and requested a seller credit $2,000 toward closing? Basically same offer, just worded differently. Or negotiate $2,000 worth of property.

The deal is not dead until the home is sold to another buyer. Keep working it. You would be surprised at what can be accomplished after hot tempers cool down.

I usually give everyone 48 hours to sit on it before getting back into the ring.

Round 2!

If your client wanted the home and it would appraise for the additional $2,000.... why did you allow your client to lose the home they wanted for such a small amont??? After all, you were claiming that the $2,000 wasn't that much when you were speaking to the Listing agent. Especially minor difference in price and payment when you were kicking in a $500 of the $2,000.

Just a quick update.
Mother hen and her seller have now dropped the sales price of the home that we offered $almost $8000 higher than what they just reduced it for!
Go figure. I guess the seller realized that it`s a "Buyers market"..

I've seen it happen many times. Too bad they couldn't get a deal together, 2000 is that far off.

it's unfortunate but many times these deals don't get done because of a few thousand dollars. in the grand scheme of things, it makes virtually no difference but you are dealing with human emotion.

i've seen million dollar homes not get sold because the buyer and seller can't agree over $2,000-$3,000. i've seen $60,000 cars not get bought because of $200, etc.

at some point, you do what you feel is right and if you feel like you've been fair and you've done enough and the other party won't budge, it's time to walk away.

in this situation, it looks like both the seller and the seller agent were being unrealistic.

when i sold my first home, it was listed for $558k. after about 2 weeks, my realtor told me that a lowball offer came in at $500k and she advised me not to take it. i agreed to tell the buyer to take a hike but i am glad that she told me about it. we later got an offer a week later at $555k which we accepted. i could have been an idiot and said "no, i want $556k or $557k" but that would have just been dumb IMO (but i have seen it done many times).

RVD.