Dawn Thomas Intero piece- does low balling an offer price help?

Can the “low-ball offer” eventually price you out of the market??

by The Dawn Thomas Team on February 27, 2012

Many of our markets are experiencing very low inventory (see Santa Clara county graph below), which is fairly typical for this time of year. What has changed, is buyer confidence along with sustained low interest rates. Buyers are out in force, and are ready to buy. As a result, we are seeing more and more multiple offers and competitive bidding. Some say its a pre-Facebook IPO bubble, which may be true. What ever the reason there are a few things to consider if you are buyer in today’s market.













First off, interest rates are extremely low. Never before has it been this cheap to borrow money, so if you are in a competitive situation, consider that stretching your budget a bit may not effect your monthly payments much at all. With buyer confidence up and inventory flat, it feels to all of us out there like we have a huge shortage of inventory!
With that feeling comes multiple offers, so here are some guidelines to help avoid pricing yourself out of the market:
If you are in a multiple offer situation, do not low ball on your offer. Let me repeat: DO NOT LOW-BALL YOUR OFFER. All you are doing is inflating the market. Other buyers going up againsxt you will get wind of how many how many offers are being presented. We are a competitive people here in Silicon Valley; the buyer who really wants the house will be willing to go in above asking in order to get the winning bid and effectively increasing market value.
It may very well be better to take a pass on a property that would be out of your price range or comfort level if it were to sell over asking. Also, if you don’t love it and don’t see the value, take a pass….another one will come along soon!

This blog is courtesy of The Dawn Thomas Team who is an award-winning Real Estate Agent team at Intero Real Estate Services in Los Altos 650-701-7822. We help nice people with selling and buying homes from Palo Alto to West San Jose!