Condo offer Take 4

This offer followed closely after the previous offer, but I didn’t want to write about it until now. I’m sure you’ve guessed why. Because I don’t want to write about until I know that I have it for sure. Here are the details.

After the last offer fell through, we immediately put in an offer for this place. The only reason I chose the last one over this one was because of the price (this one is a little more expensive but for good reasons).

I’m going to use some numbers to make things easier but just remember I subtracted x amount from the actual price. This is because I’m not sure the blog is anonymous anymore. The listing price was $80K. After looking over the comparables, we decided the maximum we are willing to pay is $70K. My agent suggested putting in an offer at $58K to give us room to negotiate.

It was Saturday on Thanksgiving weekend that we heard back from the seller agent. The counter is $70K and it’s a pretty final offer. I understand the seller agent had to give up some of his commission in order to get his client to $70K.

There were some discussions over the comparables because apparently we were all looking at the same ones. After pulling up some blue prints etc. my agent figured out we were right. She suggested we try one more counter at $65K to see if they are bluffing. I agreed and off she goes to call the other agent.

Since it was Thanksgiving Weekend everyone was visiting and wanted to see the listing photos. I showed it to them along with photos of another unit on sale, on the same floor, same square footage, layout, and listing price, facing a different direction. Low and behold the other unit dropped their price to $69K!

Here is how I worked it out. We already made the offer at $65K, and if they accept that’s it.

What if they haven’t accepted? I strongly believe they haven’t because they were pretty firm on $70K. If this is the case my agent thinks I have two options: cancel this offer and make an offer on the other unit; or stick with $65K as our final offer. I asked if we could go back and lower our offer. My agent said but they already know we are prepared to pay $65K for it so there is no leverage. Ah…I don’t think so. I was willing to pay $65K before the other unit lowered their price. I mean the listing price of the other unit (from which we negotiate)is already lower than the final offer of this unit.

So I told her to call them back ASAP. If they’ve accepted our offer of $65K then there is nothing we can do. If not, then explain the situation and say our offer is now $63K. If they accept then we have a deal. If not, then we will make an offer for the other unit right away.

Guess what happened? They accepted the $63K.

A friend of my said if that happened to her, she’d be so offended that she'd walk away from the deal. I guess. But I don’t think the offer would be any different for the next buyer since there is a good comparable at a lower price. And you’d have to pay condo fees, taxes, mortgage etc. on a vacant apartment while the next offer comes along.

That's the story on this place. Also, the other unit went Pending two days after us. The final price on that one ended up being $62.5K. I got the keys this Friday. I am slowly moving my things in. I'm so excited. Sorry all. No photos. But I will try to give a better description soon.