Quote Originally Posted by bmccasland View Post
The offer was unreasonably low according to my agent. She priced the house $15K less than we listed it for last fall because of the comps. The buyer's agent has a reputation for making very low offers, apparently giving her clients the expectation that their offers are reasonable, when in reality they aren't.

I countered the offer, and it was turned down. Considering the house has only been on the market for a week, I don't feel obligated to accept an extremely low offer.
Beth, I didn't suggest that you should feel obligated to accept it, which is why I stated "that's not to say that the offer was reasonable." FWIW, I didn't accept the first offer I got on my former house either because it was unreasonably low.

But I still agree with Jess. Don't take a low ball offer personally. It's a tactic; nothing more, nothing less. While I think a buyer's agent should encourage their clients to make reasonable offers based on object market data, I also appreciate that they think they have nothing to lose by making a low ball offer either. The fact that they didn't respond to your counter suggests to me that they were at the top of their budget and made a low offer because that's all they could afford.

I've been on both sides of this in the last year and understand the emotion involved. All I can suggest is to study and restudy the market data and be prepared to present that data when you respond to an offer. IME, buyers are overly emotional about this too because all they hear on the news every day is how bad home values are; it's sometimes hard to convince them that they aren't going to get a home they actually want to live in for peanuts.