How About a Thanksgiving Lowball to Go With Your Butterball?

A Butterball turkey from 11 years ago at my house in Land Park.

Not making this up, I actually received a Thanksgiving lowball offer for one of my listings yesterday morning. No introduction to the buyer, no notice the offer was about to arrive. I woke early morning to an email: here is an offer with the accompanying documents.  When a Sacramento Realtor receives a Thanksgiving lowball without the usual notification, there is only one thing to do. Call all of the people responsible at oh-dark-thirty. Especially the person who sent the email with instructions not to call.

Further, no calls, we prefer emails. Oh, yeah? Grabbed my cellphone. One ringy dingy.

I’m not sure the buyer’s agent was happy with me waking him up. He sounded pretty sleepy. His assistant returned my call while I was on the phone with the buyer’s agent and rattled a long message that I didn’t listen to. What I hoped to determine was whether it was worth it to send the counter offer, along with the entire offer signed. Or, should we save my sellers the hassle and just send a counter offer? If it seems the counter will be met with dead silence, I don’t bother my sellers with a request to obtain signatures on the offer.

Don’t get me wrong, I will work on Thanksgiving. Obviously. But my 43 years of experience says dealing with lowballs generally means an unrealistic buyer on the other end. Over the years, a few lowballs have worked out but most do not. Probably because not much to argue over. The entire focus is the sales price. You can’t negotiate nor compromise when list price, an attainable and reasonable goal, falls off the table.

Work with us, the agent urged. As though somehow a listing agent’s job is to tell her sellers to accept less than they deserve. Maybe that’s how others do business. Not this Sacramento listing agent. People call me a bull dog. My goal, my commitment to the seller, focuses on delivering list price or better. I say to the agent, make a full price offer. Ensure the seriousness of your buyer about buying a home. The sellers would like nothing better than to sell this home to a willing and eager buyer.

You have a dated listing, the agent attempted to argue. Like it’s old, worn out, a home nobody wants. How is this when the days on market barely exceed 2 weeks? Already received over-list price offers, mostly contingent on selling homes not yet for sale. No reason whatsoever the seller won’t get list price. With that thought in mind, I prepared a counter offer at list price, obtained a signature and delivered the document to the buyer’s agent.

Hey, even a Thanksgiving lowball gets a response.