Countered Real Estate Offer at Asking Price

And it worked.

Many years ago, I inherited some vacant land in another state.  My dad had purchased it as an investment.  Originally, it was zoned residential and had a house with a resident who was the previous owner.  She became a renter and passed away a few years later.   The house fell into disrepair and was eventually had to be demolished. 

After my parents passed away, I inherited the vacant lot.   It was adjacent to and across the street from already developed commercial properties.  Fortunately, for me the real estate taxes were relatively low since it was zoned residential.  

The property had been appraised for about 8 times the purchase price in 2006.   Of course, 2006/2007 was the peak of the real estate market before the great recession.  It's estimated value when I inherited it was about 2.5 times the purchase price.  Since I had no personal funds invested and the RE taxes were low, I was OK with being patient to wait for the price to rise to 8X again.

After few years, I received an unsolicited offer for the property at 3.5X the purchase price.  I wasn't interested in selling at that price and ignored it for 6 months.  The agent would periodically call and check on my interest.  In the meantime, a second agent contacted me with a low ball offer from about 2.5 times purchase price.   I told him I already had another offer and his was the lowest.

I was hoping that the two buyers would start a bidding war, to my advantage. However, both agents asked me to counter offer first, which was somewhat of a predicament for me since I was an accidental land owner inexperienced in real estate.  

I researched what to do on the Internet.   Basically, the recommendation was to always make a counter offer, even if it is at the asking price.   This made me remember when a neighbor turned down a offer for her house at $5000 below the asking price of $125,000.  She didn't bother to counter.  The seller did revise their offer and my neighbor didn't receive another offer for 6 months.

In my case, I called the agent of the higher bidder and countered at the asking price of 8X the purchase price.  The agent went ballistic becoming very rude and insulting, implying that my price was unrealistic, and said he would have been able to increase 30%, but not over 100%.  I listened but did not respond.

Then,  I disappointedly called the lower bidder agent, expecting a similar response,  and told him the same counter offer.   To my surprise, his answer was, " We accept," and we started working on a sales contract.

Lesson learned, " Always make a counter offer, even if it is the asking price."   Of course, YMMV.

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This is not financial nor real estate advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

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