Low-ball offers drop with dwindling Puget Sound inventory

Last year, 10 percent of real estate salespersons complained about receiving low-ball offers on listed homes – offers usually submitted by the buyer for 25 percent or more below the list price, according to a National Association of Realtors survey of its members.

That number has dropped drastically.

According to a survey this March of 4,500 agents and brokers, no Realtors complained about low-ball offers. Why? A sudden drop in inventory of for-sale homes has led to fewer homes available to sell.

Wes Neal with Prudential Olympia Real Estate in recalls a buyer who came in recently with an offer of $150,000 for a home listed at $250,000. Eventually, they negotiated a final sales price of $230,000, but it took a lot of negotiating on the agents’ parts to get the buyer higher.

“Low-ball offers are down a lot because we’re seeing more homes come on the market that are more realistically priced,” Neal said.

For homebuyers who still think they have a chance of hitting it lucky with a low-ball offer, they’re finding in many markets that their offers are more often being rejected or countered closer to the original asking price, the Los Angeles Times reports.