It’s a very useful tactic to know what a seller’s motivation is.

This can let you know how likely they are to accept a low offer and complete the sale.

Here are some tips from RealRenta, if you are considering making a low ball offer and how to avoid insulting the seller and not being taken seriously.

Usually, low ball bids are not accepted but are seen as a platform from which to negotiate.

Counter offers can reveal a lot about the seller’s “hand”.

If they reduce the price by just a few thousand dollars down from the listed price, they may not be willing to budge to the level you are after.

The circumstances in which low ball bids are probably not going to work are if:

• It is a hot market
• The property is desirable
• Higher bids have been made
• It is a rare or scarce property

On the other hand, low ball offers can work well in the following circumstances:

• The property is poorly presented
• There has been Sub-par advertising or marketing of the property
• The property has been up for sale for a long time
• It is a Distressed sale
• The market is slow and prices have been dropping
• There are few buyers and plenty of other choices

In order to determine how much you should offer, consider the following:

• Have there been recent changes in the area’s asking price?
• Has there been vendor discounting across the suburb?
• Has the property already been discounted and why?
• How much activity is there already in the current market?
• Give yourself reasonable room to offer more but without blowing your limit
• Ask the agent if any previous bids have been accepted or declined
• Don’t ask for out of the ordinary settlement terms or anything else that may cause the seller to feel affronted.

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