Negotiating Your Offer in Sacramento

Negotiating your offer in Sacramento is easier if you discuss strategy with your agent.

You will call it negotiating your offer in Sacramento, but the seller will call it justifying your lowball. Tomat-O, tomaTOE. I spot all sorts of offers to buy a home come across my desktop. The offers are accompanied by all kinds of reasons, too, but most of those “justifications” are inconsequential. In some ways, it would probably be better for a buyer’s agent not to supply any justification at all. They could just tell the truth. They could say my buyer just wants a discount. But that’s too novel of a concept. That’s not negotiating your offer in many people’s minds.

There are also obvious ways that negotiating your offer can backfire, though. For example, a buyer who claims her offer is at her maximum sales price for which she is preapproved, is somewhat useless information. I expect these types of buyers figure they can tug on a seller’s heart strings, and that a seller will care that they cannot afford to buy the house. Further, if a buyer’s ratios are that tight, any little thing she does to affect her credit report between signing the contract and closing could cause her loan to blow up. In addition, any small oversight by the lender could cause the loan to go sideways. It doesn’t make the buyer appear as a good credit risk.

Further, don’t discount the power of the Internet. Sellers and their agents enjoy access to Facebook, LinkedIn and a host of other websites that popup in Google searches. If the buyer works for the state of California, that buyer’s salary is public information, easily accessible online. Many buyers in Sacramento work for the State. It’s hard for a seller to believe a buyer is at her maximum, for example, if her annual salary exceeds half the sales price.

Sometimes buyers will say the home needs work, and they want to discount the price based on the projected dollar amount of their imaginary improvements. Sellers don’t care what type of upgrades the buyer hopes to make. Sellers base their asking price on the comparable sales. Generally the list price already accounts for condition of the property. Making a lowball offer because the home needs work is not a justification when the home is priced accordingly.

Negotiating your offer based on the comparable sales is generally your best solution. It’s the logical solution. Agents who lay out that scenario will often get the attention of the seller. Otherwise, buyers are left with the bad strategy of starting low, splitting the difference and getting stuck with no right of renegotiation. The worst that happens is the buyer ends up with no home at all. It’s a good idea to listen to your agent when it comes to negotiating your offer in Sacramento. That’s why buyers typically hire an agent.