Land purchase ????

The list is $125.

You've already gotten her down 4%, if $120K is a fair price for the land you should buy it, if your agent is worth his salt he can tell you whether or not the price is reasonable. Frankly, I wouldn't waste much time on a buyer that has made an offer+2 more counter offers, that doesn't tell me the buyer is prepared to play ball. Also, if you're trying to negotiate her down into your max price range I think you should look for something that's more within your ballpark, maxing out isn't wise...or be patient until she decides she needs to move to a lower asking price at some point in the future.
 
Last edited:
Don't forget she also has to give the realtor their cut out of your offer. It adds up!
 
Just my .02 looking from the outside, bare land thats been up for 300+ days tells me that they dont "need" the money and are willing to wait it out. Also, did you put a time constraint on your offer? This moving forward can be helpful, cuz they can accept, counter or reject, but your not stuck waiting an undetermined amount of time.
I hope it works out for you, but it sounds like you may have tried to cut a little too close to the bone. Sadly no guarantee even if you resubmit at their price that they will accept.
I've always viewed it as the seller typically is more in the drivers seat unless its a short sale/foreclosure. They have a commodity you want, and if they are honest with themselves about what they have/price then they know there is lots of potential buyers vs having to jump at every opportunity
 
We have never put in an official offer on the land. The numbers being bounced around were from agent to agent and then them calling/texting the seller and myself.
 
We have never put in an official offer on the land. The numbers being bounced around were from agent to agent and then them calling/texting the seller and myself.
Well that makes even more sense then. She gave you what she considered her absolute rock bottom. You countered lower. She doesn't have a written offer, so why is she going to dedicate more time to the verbal interchange?
 
We have never put in an official offer on the land. The numbers being bounced around were from agent to agent and then them calling/texting the seller and myself.
Well that makes even more sense then. She gave you what she considered her absolute rock bottom. You countered lower. She doesn't have a written offer, so why is she going to dedicate more time to the verbal interchange?
 
My wife and I found some land we are very interested in. We started very low and the seller responded within 24 hours with a counter. From there, we put a price that would put us in the middle. Again, 24 hours later and she replied with her bottom dollar. We then came under by $5,000 and have not heard from her in a week. The agent can't get a response or a simple text from her. He has no clue where she is or what is going on. He said she could be on vacation.

I'm guessing we were upsetting her by going back and forth but now what we are so close and even willing to go with her last offer, she has gone missing.

As a first time buyer, what should we do? The agent said he will continue to contact her and call me back. I'm going crazy and don't know what to do.

What would you do?
If you really want the property make her another offer at her bottom dollar. My guess is you either pissed her off, or she has another offer, or both.
 
We have never put in an official offer on the land. The numbers being bounced around were from agent to agent and then them calling/texting the seller and myself.
Writing up an offer is going to let them know you’re serious and not just kicking tires.
Everyone is different in the way they do business.
When I sold my house I placed a number higher than I expected to get. The people that got it came back with an offer that we wouldn’t have ever taken. I had a number in my mind that I was willing to take and put it out to him with the info that this was my bottom line. He ponied up. I would not have taken any less. Perhaps, I could have gotten more, but we wanted to sell and I was satisfied.

That buy/sell agreement let me shop for a new lot where we wanted to move. I found an ideal piece that had set for three months and had actually been discounted a couple months previously. By chance, the owner was on site when we drove down to look at it.
We were able to have a good conversation and I asked if he was willing to consider offers, or if he was firm. He said he had just gotten an offer the previous day but he wasn’t planning to accept the terms because they wanted him to carry the note as part of the deal.

My wife and I talked it over and agreed that we hadn’t seen anything for that price in four months of looking and it wasn’t going to last long. We gave him a full price offer the next day. The following day, he received two more full price offers and between our buy/sell agreement and settlement date he received several higher offers.
Since then the value of that lot has risen over 25%.
I haven’t seen anything comparable since then.
The seller and I talk fairly frequently and he told me, “ I knew that I was giving you a good price.” I was in full agreement.
That’s one time where trying to get more would have ensured I would end up with less.
 
One thing I have always done is gone ahead and written up a contract and included a check for the earnest money. They seem to understand that you are ready to do business that way.

I usually draw up a contract and make the earnest money $1,000. It's not a ton, but it seems to encourage them to make the deal so they can go ahead and deposit that check.

I've bought 8 different pieces of land from 5 different sellers over the last 20 years, some with realtors involved, some without. Having a signed contract with your offer takes some additional effort on your part and really sets you apart from people kicking the tires wasting their time in my opinion.
 
Last edited:
We have never put in an official offer on the land. The numbers being bounced around were from agent to agent and then them calling/texting the seller and myself.
Just some advice for the future, this is why I normally do all offers in writing as a signed purchase agreement. You can go back and forth with edits on the price, but whenever it’s in one party’s hands, all they have to do is sign and return and it becomes a contract. In this case, if you had that “best price” from them in writing on an offer to purchase agreement, then you wouldn’t need them to respond.

The fact you’re now willing to accept a price you previously rejected reminds me of the “don’t pass up on the first day what you’d shoot on the last” advice for hunting. :ROFLMAO:
 
We have never put in an official offer on the land. The numbers being bounced around were from agent to agent and then them calling/texting the seller and myself.
I've bought and sold a lot of property and when agents are involved everything is done through the normal offer writing and responding process. The way your doing it leaves too much room for misinterpretation and mistakes by agents. Also the buyer may not think you're serious because your agent isn't submitting a formal offer. I wouldn't. There's already been good advice here to have your agent write the offer. That's what I'd do. Good luck
 
I see the 300 days and $125 price tag as a testament that she is not getting a lot of offers on this. I assume $120 is $120K. That isnt a lot of money in todays world for land and for it to be on the market for 300 days says she is overpriced. I would write an official offer for $115K and let her stew on it. I would also ask your realtor to show you some other land and let that find its way into the conversation with her realtor. This isn't a "hot" piece of property. 300 days at $120K!
 
I'm sure it happens all the time, but isn't that illegal?

Depends. Is the agent they are working with a buyers agent who is looking out for their behalf? Or a listing agent whose duties and loyalties are to the seller? Or a dual agent?

It sounds like there is only one agent involved which leads me to believe it is the listing agent. At this point all information is used to the Sellers advantage and no confidentiality is owed to the Buyer. (this could be slightly different from state to state).

If it was a buyers agent, disclosing information that is harmful to your client is a no-no!
 
My wife and I have an agent and the seller has an agent. My agent was going to call again. I will ask to have a formal offer written up soon.
 
This happened to me on a house once I was interested in. The sellers obviously had the house priced to high based on records ect. I made two offers one low ball one good fair offer. They refused to respond to the 2nd. Well the home sit there 2 more years before they decided to sell it less than my 2nd offer was. So long story short those situations go both ways. At the end of the day I guess the question is how bad do you want it and are you willing to go above what you feel it's worth.
 
Last edited:
Leupold BX-4 Rangefinding Binoculars

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
111,134
Messages
1,948,281
Members
35,035
Latest member
believeinyourself
Back
Top