First Time Home Buyer - How to get your lowball offer ACCEPTED when buying a house. How to negotiate a lowball offer when purchasing a house.

Real estate agent and Realtor Matt Leighton talks about the best tips, strategies and tricks to get your lowball offer accepted when you are looking to buy a house.

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00:00 - Introduction
0:51 Seller's motivation
1:47 Were the owners living there or renting
3:27 Other offers on the property
4:30 Value of the property
5:28 Credibility
6:34 Build Rapport
8:05 Ask the right questions


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How to get your lowball offer accepted when buying a house (negotiation tips)

0:26 - What is a lowball offer? A lowball offer is an offer that is substantially lower than the sales price that the seller has no interest in considering.
0:53 - Tip 1 - Find out the seller's motivation. The goal here is a process of elimination. You want to find a property where the seller is losing money, has to sell quickly, or is just significantly inconvenienced by holding on to the property.
3:27 - Tip 2 - Ask the following question: Have there been any other offers on the property? The reason you ask this is to figure out if a lowball offer on the property for sale is even possible. If the agent tells you someone else submitted a low offer at one point and the seller is not interested, then you know you can move on to another property. You don't want to waste your time. But be sure you are phrasing everything to sound like you respect the seller and their time (because of course, you respect the seller!).
4:32 - Tip 3 - Know the market value of the property for sale. Is the house actually overpriced? You need to do your market research to determine the fair value of the house. Study the comparable properties, use apps like Zillow, Redfin, and Homesnap to learn about what recent houses have sold for in the neighborhood.
5:31 - Tip 4 - Have credibility. Don't just throw out verbal offers and ask the seller or listing agent if they will take X amount off of the list price. Submit written offers with your preapproval letter or if you're paying all cash, be sure to have proof of funds. Listing agents and sellers will probably not take you seriously if you throw out verbal offers with no form of proof or credibility to back up your verbal offer.
6:34 - Tip 5 - Build rapport with the listing agent. You want the listing agent to be on your team when you are negotiating a lowball offer on a house for sale. You want the listing agent to be optimistic and encouraged about your offer. And you want them to be confident that you'll be able to close the deal. You don't want to attack the listing agent's price or argue with the agent. You want to be friendly and help the listing agent to see your point-of-view so that the agent can encourage the seller to accept or at least consider your lowball offer on the property.
8:07 - Tip 6 - Ask the right questions (in the right way). You want to ask strategic questions that will allow the listing agent (or seller) to explain to you why they are overpriced, or why the house has been on the market for so long. The goal here is to have the seller or listing agent admit to you that the property is taking longer than usual to sell, or that the property is priced a little bit too high. It's one thing if you, the potential buyer says that the property has been on the market for an above-average time, but the goal here is to have the listing agent or seller admit to you that the property is taking a long time to sell or that they priced the property too high.
10:30 - Tip 7 - Use the words 'fair' and 'because'. Something about the word 'fair' causes people to stop and think. When you use the word 'fair' strategically in negotiation, it causes the other party to stop and ask themselves if they (the seller/listing agent) are being unfair, and nobody wants to be known as 'unfair'. Follow up all your reasoning with the word 'because'. Have a reason for everything. Maybe you are writing the offer at that price because that is all your lender approved you for. Or maybe you're writing the offer at that price because that's the average price in the neighborhood. Have a reason for every action you take when you negotiate your lowball offer on a house.

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Matt Leighton - Arlington VA Real Estate Agent
Matt [at] Orange Line Condo dot com
Century 21 Redwood Realty
1934 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA 22201
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