Making an Offer on a Santa Fe Property

How much should I offer?

While everyone knows this is a crazy question in general, when it comes to a specific home that interests you the answer must be calculated based on a number of factors:

• How long has the property been on the market?
• If a new listing, how competitively priced is the property?
• If we can find out: what is the motivation of the seller? Is he “desperate” (due to financial duress, divorce, new job elsewhere, health or other circumstances) or willing to “sit on it until he gets his price”?
• Your feelings about it. Since many Santa Fe homes are unique properties, if you find one that’s ideal for you then maybe it’s not ‘just about the price.”
• We’ve seen situations, even in today’s “buyer’s market”, where a home was priced so aggressively that multiple offers were received within days. In this situation, offering a few hundred dollars over list price made the difference in owning versus not getting the house.
• In other situations, it’s obvious a property is overpriced, in which case we justify a significantly lower offer with documentation to back it up, e.g., it needs new stucco or roof or has other obvious defects…not to mention the slowness of the market and lack of qualified buyers.
• Current market conditions play a major factor. As professional brokers in the local market, we at GreenRoads Realty know what’s going on in the market and can advise you accordingly.

Read about pricing a home from the seller’s perspective.

Too low an offer?

In a Buyer’s Market, we don’t believe there’s such a thing as too low an offer, as long as the buyer could qualify for the full asking price (if he chose to pay it) and is sincere in wanting the property if he could get it a “reasonable” price. We will discuss this with you before committing the time and energy to actually making a bid on a property. We will find out all we can from the seller’s agent, assess comparable sales and help you come to a starting (and ending) place with your offer that makes sense to you.

The only way to know what price a seller might be willing to take is to make an offer in writing; everything else is pure speculation. As long as the seller responds to an offer with a counter offer, the negotiations continue. The seller is as curious to know the buyer’s top dollar as the buyer is to know the seller’s bottom dollar.

Also, we do not in believe in the idea of “offending” a seller with a low offer. This is a business proposition and should not be taken personally. We strive to accomplish the goal of our client, which requires a willing buyer and willing seller and a meeting of the minds.