Hello

It’s funny sometimes a vendor can be quite happy sitting on the market for 6, 8 or even 10 weeks without any offers and no real angst between themselves and the real estate agent. However, when an agent brings an offer to the owner that is $50,000 under their expectations and about the same under the agent’s valuation, World War 3 can start. I guess it might be the reality that their house may not be worth as much as they had hoped or perhaps it could be the pent-up frustration of the long selling process. Keep in mind when I refer to an offer, I mean a written offer with at least a small deposit paid. There are several reasons that an agent would take an offer so far under expectations and they include;

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• The agent may believe that the buyer is just “playing the game” and that they will come up with a better offer with some back and forth, and that you may be able to meet at an agreeable price to both the seller and buyer somewhere in the middle.
   

• The agent is not the gatekeeper of price, and it is up to the vendor to accept or reject an offer. It might be low but after 10 weeks it might actually be what the house is roughly worth.
   

• Sometimes when a low offer is taken it is an underhanded way of lowering the vendor’s expectations. When you consistently get offers $50-$100,000 under your reserve or asking price it’s hard not to lose faith in the process and lessen your price. I know of an agency that has taught this method through their corporate office.
   

• A good agent may take a low offer to leverage a better offer from another buyer. There are situations where an agent has a few buyers sitting on the fence and not making offers. By getting even a low offer you might give the other buyers a sense of urgency and get them to make a much better offer. Creating competition with multiple offers is the best way to achieve the highest possible price.
   

• The agent may want to test your resolve. What will you really accept? Are you desperate to sell? Often a vendor may keep his/her cards close to their chests, but it all gets real when an offer comes in.
   

I believe that getting an offer is a positive thing, even if it is substantially lower that you had hoped for. However, a good agent will use this offer to leverage other potential buyers or to use it as an opportunity to negotiate the buyer up to a realistic level. Getting offers even in a hot market is hard so as an agent you should make it count, get the buyer up and work hard to get a deal done. Not all sales are done at auction when you are $100,000 over reserve with 3 bidders pushing the price up. (even if the agencies profile video looks like they are)
 

If you are an agent with a good amount of pride in your work, not selling a house is a failure, but not even getting an offer is a disaster.