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The seller wants full price [are you kidding]

Charleston real estate buying and selling a homeMy buyers made a very reasonable offer on a home the other day. We didn't necessarily expect to be able to buy it at that price but opened negotiations expecting a counter offer from the seller.

But the seller responded by saying he wanted to sell the home for full price.

Are you kidding me and what is the seller thinking. 

If the offer had been a lowball offer with some dollar amount just thrown out there with no basis in reality, then the smart thing for a seller to do would be to respond back requesting a full price offer because there isn't much sense in trying to negotiate the non negotiable.

But the offer was based on recent comparable sales and was well within the price range that other similar homes have sold for.

And that wasn't full price. There was a little fluff in the listing price, asking price or offering price, whichever suggestion of value you would like to call it.

Now, here's the thing. Last month in the Charleston real estate market, homes on average sold for 94.47% of listing price. Homes that sold for less than $300,000 sold for 96.38% of listing price, homes that sold between $300,000 and $600,000 sold for 93.76% and homes that sold for more than $600,000 sold for 92.44%. Those are the averages and sure, a few homes may have sold for full price and a few other homes may have sold for a discount of 20% or even more from the listing price but most homes likely sold pretty close to the averages.

If you are selling your home or thinking about selling your home in today's Charleston real estate market, you might want to be flexible when negotiating. My buyers have told the seller they will not pay full price. 

Published Monday, March 29, 2010 6:28 AM by Howard Arnoff

Comments

# re: The seller wants full price [are you kidding]

I have found that in todays market sometimes you are better off pricing your listing to sell and then not negotiating as buyers are willing to pay full price for a home that is priced right.  I have sold quite a few at full price and just the other day I sold one the first day it came on the market for full price.  

So, it definitely depends on the situation but some sellers can demand full price if they have it priced right to begin with, or they may just not have room to negotiate if they purchased when the prices were much higher and might need full price to make it work.  

I personally would recommend that your buyers write a letter telling them exactly why they are offering what they are, support it with documentation and tell them how much they love their home and want to call it their own but can only pay X amount and see what they say.  May or may not work but it costs nothing to try and you never know.  Of course the buyer could agree to the higher price and put the deal subject to an appraisal and then try and negotiate lower when and if the appraisal comes in lower.  

Just a couple of ideas, good luck, Sincerely, David Wertan of RE/MAX Advanced Realty

Monday, March 29, 2010 11:23 PM by David Wertan

# re: The seller wants full price [are you kidding]

David, thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. I totally agree that sellers are better off pricing it correctly from the start ... but ... that wasn't the case here.

But surely you're not suggesting that because the seller purchased the home when prices were higher and *needs* full price in order to sell that my buyers should pay a premium so that the seller doesn't have to bring money to the closing.

We did justify the offer with documentation after hearing the response.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 5:51 AM by Howard Arnoff
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